TOURISM Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo on Wednesday expressed concern that statements by local politicians and media coverage on the state-inspired extrajudicial killings (EJKs) are turning away foreign tourists who would otherwise be holidaying in the Philippines.
In a news conference in Bangkok during the state visit of President Duterte to Thailand, Teo appealed to Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo and the media to “tone down statements and coverage on EJKs…. It’s making my job of selling the Philippines more difficult.”
This was her response to a reporter’s question if Robredo’s recent statements on EJKs that was aired in a video message at a United Nations convention was affecting visitor arrivals. Teo stressed, “I have great respect for VP Leni,” but she pointed out that the Philippines “is already becoming an alternate destination [for foreign tourists]…. I’m always being asked by European tour operators [about EJKs]. I always tell them it’s safe in the Philippines.”
Tourism officials appointed by Duterte told the BusinessMirror, however, even since last year, they were already experiencing some difficulties in selling the Philippines, because of the President’s penchant for criticizing and lambasting the United States and Europe, both of which are major sources of tourists for the country.
“Everytime he opens his mouth, ninenerbiyos na kami [we get nervous],” confessed a highranking official. “When he does that, the next day, we have to release a press statement on the developments in our agency, just to distract the public from what the President said,” the same official stressed, adding, “nahihirapan talaga kami magbenta [we really find it challenging to sell the Philippines] when he makes those statements.” The official added that media reports about the EJKs have also not helped the DOT’s cause.
Duterte has taken potshots at the US and Europe, accusing them of intervening in the affairs of the Philippines, especially with regard to his administration’s measures to combat drug addiction and the illegal-drugs trade. State-inspired killings of suspected drug addicts and pushers, either by the police or by masked personnel, have reached 7,000 since the administration’s antidrug policy was put into place in July 2016. There are no pending investigations into the identities of these masked killers.
These masked killers. The Department of Tourism (DOT) is projecting foreign visitor arrivals to reach 12 million by 2022, at the close of Duterte’s term of office as president.
During the presscon in Bangkok, Teo also said twinning promotion packages will be undertaken by Thai and Filipino tour operators to help boost visitor arrivals in the Philippines. “Our promotion materials are in line with selling both countries,” said the DOT chief, when asked on the details of the tourism cooperation program between the Philippines and Thailand. “Our tour operators will sell Thailand, and Thailand will sell the Philippines [in one tour package],” she said, adding her counterpart in Thailand, Minister of Tourism and Sports Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul has promised to help send more tourists to the Philippines.
She noted there were many Catholics in Thailand, for instance, who want to make pilgrimage tours to heritage churches in the Philippines. This is one of the projects, she said, both countries will be working on.
Also, Teo said, Thai Silk Airways has promised to look into the possibility of flying directly to Davao and other parts of the Philippines to help increase more Thai visitors in the country. At present, the airline flies to Cebu from Bangkok. “We would like to see more direct flights to the other provinces in the Philippines [from Thailand],” she said.
The DOT is looking to “double” the number of Thai visitors to the Philippines to at least 70,000, Teo said. At present, Thai visitors to the Philippines were recorded at 47,913 in 2016, up 8.8 percent from 2015. In contrast, Filipinos visiting Thailand have reached 340,000 in 2016. “We have more Filipinos visiting Thailand than Thais visiting the Philippines,” she said.
Manila and Bangkok have resolved to revive the 23-year-old tourism-cooperation agreement during Duterte’s state visit to Thailand. In a news statement, the DOT said Duterte and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Chan witnessed the signing of the Implementing Program of Tourism Cooperation 2017-2022 between Teo and Wattanavrangkul at the Santi Maitri Building of the Government House of Thailand.
The implementing program is rooted in a memorandum of agreement on tourism cooperation signed in Manila between the Philippines and Thailand on March 24, 1993. Thailand is the fourth country to sign up to a tourism- cooperation program forged by Teo. The other countries are China, Cambodia and Turkey.
“The Philippines’s tourism program has been boosted by this concrete commitment for tourism cooperation with Thailand as a result of President Duterte’s fruitful state visit this week,” Teo said.
She observed that the Philippines could learn much from Thailand in terms of tourism-development strategies, noting that Thailand “tops Southeast Asian countries in terms of visitor arrivals”. Visitor arrivals in Thailand have reached 30 million, lifted by tourists from mainland China.
Under the agreement, officials and staff of both participants shall visit each country to build their capacity in the areas of tourism development, administration and finance, human resource, marketing and promotions, and standards and regulations.
Teo said this development would also encourage tourism-educational institutes in both countries to cooperate on exchanging technical materials, sending experts to give lectures and providing information on the opportunities for tourism related training.
3 comments
Teo is looking for an escape goat for her failure to attract tourists.
Errr….Ms. Teo, you’re barking up the wrong tree. It’s not the reports of EJKs but the EJKs themselves that are making it hard for you to market us. If you stop the EJKs what is there to report? If you don’t stop the EJKs but want people to stop reporting on it, impose martial law first. Either way, ask your boss to do it.
So the Tourism Secretary will know:
* the hands-down top person spewing vitriol and always talking about killings, EJK, death, or other grim scenarios is her boss, not the VP nor any other official, and obviously the media will always report on such presidential vulgarities. Sec. Teo is clearly barking up the wrong tree!
** Instead of putting blame on external or political incidents, the DOT head ought to straighten out the internal issues in her department, including the attached agencies as they have no cohesive vision or common strategy to further improve the state of Philippine Tourism.
*** after the hosting of Miss Universe, the major traction of tourism in the public consciousness is the immense coverage and headlines concerning the corrupt incompetency of actor Cesar Montano in his mismanagement of the Tourism Promotions Bureau, a most vital body of the DOT. EITHER MAKE THE GUY RESIGN OR FIRE HIM, ASAP!!
**** the Department of Tourism cannot and should not only rely and pin all hope on the Miss Universe hosting, cause that seems to be the case, as all seems rather quiet at the tourism-related front after the pageant ended, except for the constant negative news on Montano and the TPB.
SO INSTEAD OF PUBLICLY BLAMING THE WRONG CULPRITS, THE TOURISM CZAR OUGHT TO BE MORE PROACTIVE, INCLUSIVE AND FOCUS IN EXECUTING TOGETHER A STRATEGIC DYNAMIC PROGRAM TO ACHIEVE ULTIMATELY AN INCREASE IN TOURIST ARRIVALS THROUGH PROMOTION, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND PARTNERSHIPS.