MANILA, July 11 — The ongoing siege in Marawi City continues to plague the Philippines but the Department of Tourism (DOT) has repeatedly assured that it will not affect overall tourism numbers.
In April, a month before the Marawi siege, several travel warnings were issued against the Philippines following an encounter between security forces and a terror group in Bohol.
It was followed by terror threats in Marawi City and the martial law declaration in the whole of Mindanao on May 23 just when the Duterte administration was bent on prioritizing Visayas-Mindanao tourism.
Aside from terror threats, security issues were also a concern after the infamous gunman attack in Resorts World Manila in Pasay City early June.
DOT has its own controversies as a number of the agency’s top officials got embroiled in corruption. The agency also suffered yet another blow when its latest advertising campaign was criticized for being a copycat of a South African ad. Eventually, the agency was prompted to cut ties with ad agency McCann Worldgroup Philippines.
Despite a few bumps on the road, data from the DOT showed that foreign tourist arrivals to the Philippines for the first five months this year (Jan-May) rose by 14.43 percent to 2.882-million visitors.
The top three markets are Korea with 128,691 arrivals, United States with 83,056 arrivals, and China with 83,649 arrivals.
DOT Assistant Secretary Frederick Alegre, in an interview, said he is confident that the Philippines would reach its target of acquiring 7-million foreign tourist arrivals by yearend.
Meanwhile, at least 15 advertising agencies have expressed interest to create DOT’s new ad, he said.
Alegre said that the agency trusted the Duterte administration’s commitment to ensure the country’s peace and order noting that the President himself is the country’s biggest tourism advocate.
During the President’s state visits to China, Cambodia, Thailand, Turkey and Russia in his first year in office, tourism cooperation agreements were also signed to strengthen tourism both ways.
“We are moving forward,” Alegre said expressing excitement to hear Pres. Duterte’s second State of the Nation Address on July 24.
“We’re very much thankful for the President’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ (infrastructure program) because it has a direct impact on tourism,” he added.
In Pres. Duterte’s first SONA last year, he vowed to make travel to tourism sites easier by building more access roads to tourism sites.
The President said that road development projects should also be able to complement the government thrust to provide modern agriculture infrastructural which could also be useful to eco-tourism.
Alegre, meanwhile, said that once the situation in Marawi City normalizes, the agency will be crafting a tourism masterplan for Mindanao tourism including the conflict-torn Marawi. (Azer N. Parrocha/PNA)
