"We are adjusting, if needed, to regenerate the glamor of the industry."
On March 11 last year, I was with a small group of journalists covering the Tourism beat in the famed beach of Boracay, waiting for the arrival of President Rodrigo Duterte and Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat to grace an event. Unfortunately, I cannot recall what event that was.
However, just a few hours before their scheduled arrival, we got word that both Duterte and Romulo-Puyat have decided to call off their Boracay trip due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases, thus effectively cancelling the program.
Later in the afternoon, we received advisories from our colleagues that the President was set to deliver a national address later that night.
Relying on my journalistic instinct, I surmised then it would be about a lockdown. I was proven right later that night when Duterte delivered his address, only he refused to call it a lockdown, but a community quarantine instead. But lockdown or quarantine, I was very sure then that tourism, one of the biggest contributors to our economy, would be taking a big hit.
The original two-week quarantine was extended into a month, then to several months, and up to when, no one knows. But as planes lay grounded on the tarmac, hotels repurposed to serve COVID-19 patients, beaches and other attractions turned into mere postcard materials. Protocols barred them from opening to the public. It seemed Philippine tourism had died the day Duterte declared a nationwide community quarantine. The grandeur of tourism had been reduced to a mere phantasmagoria, as if it never really happened.
And figures from last year culled worldwide would attest to that. In a presentation made before the delegates to the Pacific Asia Travel Association virtual Adventure Travel Conference and Mart the other day at the Hilton Clark Sun Valley Resort at the Clark Freeport, Pampanga, Tourism Undersecretary Benito Bengzon, Jr. bared that coming from a banner year for tourism in 2019, with 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals recorded globally, it was such an irony the tourism industry almost evaporated in 2020.
Last year, Benzon said that the global record of tourist arrivals dramatically shrank by 74 percent, equating to about a billion less arrivals last year, which was a direct impact of border closures and stringent travel restrictions in all tourism markets.
The Asia Pacific alone saw an 84-percent decrease in international arrivals in 2020, which is about 300 million less than in 2019. The Middle Eastern and African regions both recorded 75-percent drops, Europe arrivals declined by 70 percent, and the Americas suffered a drop of 69 percent, Bengzon stated in his presentation, citing UN World Tourism Organization data.
The decrease in visitor arrivals last year, Bengzon said, directly affected tourism gross domestic product which recorded a decline of US$ 2 trillion or more than 2% of the entire world’s GDP.
And those numbers, Bengzon notes, are not merely digits as they represent millions of jobs lost, thousands upon thousands of businesses that have been forced to cease operations, directly affecting communities, families, and individuals who are now facing the overwhelming struggle of losing their livelihood.
Yet, despite the risks the pandemic poses to tourism, the Department of Tourism refuses to concede. The other day, along with the Tourism Promotion Board and the Pacific Asia Travel Association virtual Adventure Travel Conference and Mart, it successfully hosted the country’s first international MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) event this year amidst the challenges and limitations posed by the pandemic.
Staged in a hybrid set-up, the PATA summit was attended by some 300 participants, although only 61 were allowed on-site in accordance with the government’s minimum health standards and social distancing requirements. A total of 35 Philippine sellers participated in the business-to-business and networking activities.
Addressing the delegates, Puyat stressed that the country’s enhanced product and market development will pave the way for this particular tourism product.
“Presently, the Philippines retains its proactive stance in exploring new innovative tourism products, including adventure tourism that will contribute to fast track the recovery of the sector within the Asia-Pacific region. Being primarily an outdoor activity, and with obvious resemblance to the baseline requirement for a healthy and safe travel, it presents an opportunity for a strong reversal and onward growth,” enthused the tourism chief.
“While Adventure Tourism has been recognized as a global tourism trend and tourists shift their interest to new destinations and experiences, the Philippines’ unique 7,641 islands have a lot to offer,” said Puyat, as she also cited the DOT’s Tourism Response and Recovery Plan as a helpful guide to the industry towards recovery and sustainability.
The TRRP, she said, aims to protect and ensure the employment and business survival of industry stakeholders during and post lockdown measures, as well as provide policies and guidelines for the New Normal.
But even with all her charm, Secretary Berna cannot do it alone.
As Bengzon said, “We are (now) presented with an opportunity to reframe, recalibrate, and reimagine a tourism industry that is more responsible and accountable anchored on the principles of inclusiveness and sustainability, one that is caring of nature, the people, and communities, and of course for the travelers of tomorrow.”
An opportunity of this immense value and impeccable timing should not be wasted. In order to achieve lasting outcomes of this Re-Generation effort, we must have the proper policies, plans, and sustainability standards,” he stressed.
And the support of organizations like the Bangkok-based PATA, an association of government and private travel organizations that aims to promote and develop travel and tourism in the Pacific region would come in handy in situations like these.
We not only exploit the hidden opportunities this pandemic holds, but we also adjust if needed to regenerate the glamor of the tourism industry.