|
THE
Third Ambassadors’/Consuls’ General Tour of the
Philippines brought in not just eager Filipino-American
tourists but also foreign businessmen looking at
possible areas of investment in the country.
About
650 Fil-Ams, including a significant number of
Caucasian– Americans and Canadians, were in the country
from July 14 to 20, attending business and investment
briefings, treated to sumptuous dinners and lunches of
Philippine dishes, brought to several shopping trips, as
well as entertained in various resorts and tourist
destinations outside of Metro Manila.
In an
interview with the BusinessMirror, Philippine Ambassador
to Washington, D.C. Willy Gaa said the demand for slots
in this year’s tour was overwhelming.
“So far
[the tour group] has really been increasing in numbers
since its start three years ago. And this year we even
had to put a cap on the number of applicants for the
tour. [The biggest increase came from] California,
specifically, Los Angeles.... We, in fact, had more on
the waiting list. We had problems with the
accommodations already,” Gaa said.
In
previous tours, only the Makati Shangri-La Hotel was
booked for the participants, but this year, even the
Peninsula Manila hosted a number of the delegations.
A number
of the participants were first-time balikbayans,
according to Gaa, with their Americanized children in
tow, while there were some who had joined a previous
tour.
Investment possibilities
Philippine Ambassador to Canada Jose Brillantes noted
the growing number of American/Canadian tourists who
have joined this year’s tour but also have business
interests in mind.
He said
that of the 68 members of the Canadian delegation, “10
of them are businessmen. They’re here for the tour
first, but after, they have meetings set up with their
counterparts. They’re going to look into investment
possibilities, ranging from manpower recruitment to
mining.”
Canada,
where about 400,000 Filipinos live and work, is a major
investor in mining around the world. Brillantes declined
to name the investors pending closure of their deals
with local businessmen.
Megaworld Corp., a property development company owned by
Andrew Tan, apparently reaped the most benefit from the
tour this year with the balikbayans sinking in their
hard-earned dollars into several condominium units.
Angela
Cortes, senior sales director of Megaworld, disclosed
that the company received many inquiries into its
township development called McKinley Hill, a 50-hectare
property in
Fort Bonifacio,
Taguig.
She said
she was optimistic she would close P50 million in sales
by the tour’s end, as several of the Fil-Am buyers
already “signed up for three units in Tuscany Private
Estates and seven in Stamford Residences.”
She said
a number of the buyers were ready to pay her “in dollars
[cash]…. With the response we got from them [the
balikbayans], we hope to hit the P100-million [sales
target for the tour]. We expect more inquiries after
their busy tour here.”
The
Philippine Ambassadors’/Consuls’ General Tour is a
brainchild of Albert del Rosario, conceived during his
stint as ambassador to Washington, D.C. It was designed
to encourage more Fil-Ams to visit their home country
and spread the word on its business and travel
opportunities.
The
annual tour, begun in 2005, is a joint effort by the
Departments of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Tourism, and Trade
and Industry (DTI).
Participants from the US mainland paid at least $1,949
for a basic tour package from July 12 to 17, which
included roundtrip airfare, four-night hotel stay
(twin-share), three meals a day, including a special
lunch and visit to Malacańang Palace, as well as city
and day tours.
From
July 17 to 20, optional tours to major provincial
destinations were made available to the participants at
an additional cost, ranging from $349 per person, twin
sharing, to $764 per person.
The
visit to Malacańang on July 16, and the photo
opportunity with President Arroyo, proved to be the
tour’s highlight. “I’ve visited the Philippines a number
of times,” said one long-time Fil-Am resident of New
Jersey, who requested anonymity, “but this is the first
time I’ve ever been to Malacańang!” She said she hoped
to have her eldest daughter enroll in a local private
university by next year.
Even Dr.
James Stadler, medical director of the Guam Memorial
Hospital, who joined the tour with his Fil-Am wife,
Virginia—a nurse and member of the Guam
Symphony—described the visit as a “once–in–a–lifetime
experience” to meet President Arroyo.
But GMA
disappoints
However,
there were a few who had joined the previous tours, like
Eloise Baza, president of the Guam Chamber of Commerce,
who were disappointed and wondered “why the President
did not give any speech.” No official explanation was
given for this, but a DFA source told BusinessMirror
that “it is now the President’s official policy to give
only one speech a day.” At noon that day, the President
had already spoken before participants of the 2007
Corporate Social Responsibility Expo at the Sofitel
Philippine Plaza.
In the
previous tours, President Arroyo had managed to whip the
tour participants into frenzied clapping as she outlined
the accomplishments of her administration and encouraged
them to invest in the country. Last year, she even
pushed the Fil-Ams to support her campaign for Charter
change.
This
time, the President merely exchanged a few pleasantries
with some members of each tour delegation as she sat
throughout the souvenir photo-taking with Executive
Secreatry Eduardo Ermita, Foreign Affairs Secretary
Alberto Romulo, and Trade and Industry Secretary Peter
Favila.
Before
the photo opportunity with the President at the Rizal
Hall, the tour participants viewed the various
historical items on display at the Palace museum and
then had a lunch of native Filipino dishes catered by
Via Mare at the Heroes’ Hall.
Baubles,
bangles and beads
On July
14, the DTI urged the tour participants to invest in the
Philippine countryside during a business briefing at the
Forbes Town Center, a major business/residential
development of Megaworld and the Bonifacio West
Development Corp. at The Fort in Taguig.
During
the same briefing, Bing Limjoco, president of the
Philippine Franchise Association, spoke of the
opportunities in investing in local franchises. She also
noted the success and continuing expansion of Jollibee
Foods Corp. because of franchising, edging out the
US-based McDonald’s Corp. in the local fast-food
business.
The tour
group was also treated to a discussion of the local
jewelry industry by Cecilia Ramos, owner of Ricel’s
Jewelry and chairwoman of the Meycauayan Jewelry
Industry Association Inc. Meycauayan, Bulacan, is
envisioned to become the center of world-class fine
jewelry in the Philippines, she said. Bulacan has long
been known as the site of the country’s best
manufacturers of gold jewelry, exporting millions of
dollars worth of products to the world market.
Even
before Ramos’s speech, however, many tour participants
were observed checking out the gold and silver jewelry
for sale at the ground floor of the Forbes Town Center.
Nancy, a Honolulu-based Fil-Am, expressed particular
interest in buying some pieces on exhibit. According to
Ramos, the price of Philippine gold jewelry is 30-
percent to 60-percent lower than those made in other
countries like the US, Italy and Saudi Arabia.
In the
evening of the same day, the tour group feasted on
dishes from the Mindanao region during a welcome dinner
hosted by the Department of Tourism at the Sofitel
Philippine Plaza. A fashion show was also held featuring
the Muslim-inspired creations of veteran Filipino
designer Toni Galang, whose clientele include Fil-Ams on
Guam and the mainland US. He is well-known for his
intricately designed wedding gowns. The tour
participants also lapped up Muslim accessories on
display at the hotel.
‘Something new each year’
On July
15, the different delegations separated for day tours to
Corregidor, an island off Manila Bay, which became the
headquarters of the Allied forces in the Pacific and the
temporary seat of the Philippine Commonwealth during
World War II; Villa Escudero, a resort featuring
man-made waterfalls amid a vast coconut plantation; and
Tagaytay to get a glimpse of the world-famous Taal
Volcano.
Businessman Frank Shimizu, president of Ambros Inc., the
wholesale distributor of Budweiser, as well as Bristol
Myers, Kimberly Clark and Mead Johnson products in Guam
and the Northern Marianas, said, “It’s my first time [to
join the tour] and it won’t be my last. . . . We went to
Corregidor and it was an eye-opener. Anybody who wants
to learn about World War II, I recommend that they go
see Corregidor.” Shimizu was in town with his wife
Fermina, the aunt of Guam’s First Lady Joann Camacho.
The most
enthusiastic among tour participants appeared to be
Atty. Alexander Modaber, the US Public Defender for
Guam, who had joined the two previous Ambassadors/Consuls General
Tour. Of his third tour, Modaber said: “They’ve added
something new and each time is a new experience….
Everybody had a great opportunity when they had
different trips to the various regions in the
Philippines. So it’s a tremendous opportunity to see the
Philippines,
to see the culture and to see the things outside of
Manila.
Of course, what’s amazing, too, is you get to go to the
museums and just learn so much. There’s always something
new to see. You can always take something out of it.”
Aside
from the visit to the Palace museum, the participants
also toured the National Museum for Philippine artwork,
the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas
Money Museum
for its coin collection, and the Metropolitan Museum for
its precolonial gold exhibit.
Originally from Las Vegas, Modaber said he’s looking for investment opportunities in local
condominiums “and eventually retire in the
Philippines.”
The tour
group was also brought to major shopping destinations in
the metropolis, such as the Mall of Asia of the SM Group
along Roxas Blvd., and Tiendesitas, a bazaar in Pasig
City. |
