Here is definitely welcome news for the tourism industry. The Duterte government will invest $23 billion in tourism infrastructure.
That is what ails our tourism industry most, not the fancy slogans that we keep changing with every change in tourism secretaries—the woeful inadequacy of our infrastructure to catch up with the needs and wants of foreign visitors. The lack of airports and seaports that will give tourists access to the beautiful islands which are our best natural attractions. The lack of access roads to reach tourist destinations. Even the woeful “speed” of our internet connectivity, which some rating agencies claim to be just a tad faster than Kabul in Afghanistan. And of course, the lack of hotels and resort establishments with facilities that are at least “livable.”
Recently, with the Duterte aperture Chinoise, an influx of visitors from the People’s Republic is expected. Question: do we have enough rooms to accommodate the entry of, say, a million tourists more?
How quickly can the private sector respond to this expected influx, which can easily bloom to 3 million annually by 2020, if the Chinese government so decides, and the Philippines can accommodate?
The basics—these are what we lack.
In 1998, only some 165,000 tourists, foreign and local, visited Boracay, especially after the waters fronting the long white beach tested positive for coliform. And treated water was yet non-existent, such that if you shampoo, the shower water in even the best of hotels would not rinse your hair properly.
But the Ramos and Estrada governments borrowed from Japanese yen loans to finance big-ticket items, such that by 2000, soft water flowed into Boracay faucets, water that came from the Nabas River in the mainland, treated and purified in a PTA-built treatment facility, then brought to the island through an underwater pipe system that crossed the strait.
Similarly, the Estrada government built a wastewater treatment plant in the island, a project also started by the FVR administration, where every establishment in Boracay had to connect their septic tanks and wastewater, before discharging the safely-treated water into the middle of the Visayan Sea fronting Barangay Bulabog.
The Kalibo airport runway was lengthened; the terminal was improved. The road from Kalibo to Malay was widened, all started by Erap and finalized by GMA. The provincial government borrowed from the Landbank and put up a decent visitor terminal beside the pier in Caticlan. And PTA built a pier in Boracay to divert the motorboats from docking right in the long white sand. Now through a PPP with San Miguel Corporation, the Caticlan runway has been lengthened from 800 meters to 2.2 kilometers, and the terminal modernized.
Even as I still think, after a recent visit to the island, that Boracay’s holding capacity is bursting at the seams, the fact is, from 165,000 visitors in 1998, it now hosts some 1.5 million (perhaps more) each year. It’s not because of the promotion. It’s because adequate infrastructure has made the inflow of visitors possible.
Build it and they will come. The Shangri-La, Discovery, soon Crimson, and so many other hotels.
Soon, a new airport will be opened in San Vicente, a municipality in Palawan that faces the West Philippine Sea, and boasts of a 13-kilometer long white sand beach (Boracay’s is a bit more than 3 kilometers). Real estate speculators have already bought much of the surrounding properties, waiting for a boom in tourism.
Will they spoil San Vicente the way of Boracay?
Not under Gov. Pepito Alvarez’s watch. The businessman-turned-politician wants to keep San Vicente as pristine as possible, with a development plan that will seek balance between visitor dollars and pesos vis-à-vis the preservation of its environment.
Tourism is one of the best drivers of inclusive growth, provided it is well-planned and well-implemented, both in terms of infrastructure development and marketing support. It harnesses private sector entrepreneurship. It promotes small and medium-scale businesses. It provides jobs even to the unskilled and semi-skilled.
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Sure there are downsides brought by externalities. Global recession can freeze visitor arrivals. Peace and order, which is paramount. Political developments as well. Look at how Chinese visitors froze and declined during PNoy’s “cold war” over the South China Sea. And how they could jump with Duterte’s détente with Xi.
In Taiwan for instance, there is a marked decline in visitor arrivals from the mainland since Pres. Tsai-Ing Wen and her DPP defeated the Kuomintang and Ma’s candidate.
But all these are par for the course. Economic shocks happen, and in time dissipate as new opportunities are found and explored.
The point of fact is, whether it is infrastructure to support agriculture or tourism, or to perk up economic activity—Build, Build, Build is key.
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Oh, and just one salutation to the decision makers of the Metro Manila Film Festival: Thanks for giving way to the indies and the small producers of quality films. And thanks for giving all Filipinos relief from the inanities of the Mano Po’s and the Enteng Kabisote’s and the horror flicks as well as slapstick comedies that have become the predictably bad fare of the last two decades.
Bravo!