Revenue earner

VIENNA – On Wednesday, the summer solstice, it felt warmer at 35 degrees Celsius in this Austrian capital than in Manila as a Europe-wide heat wave triggered forest fires.

The heat wave didn’t deter tourists; they just dressed down to beach casual and still crowded the many places of interest all over this city and sipped coffee or dined al fresco in the heat. Even around noon under the scorching sun, many tourists sat on the open upper decks of the hop-on, hop-off tour buses.

Tourism was even boosted as Austrians celebrated the solstice by lighting bonfires in honor of the feast of St. John (similar to our San Juan revelry). But barbecues were banned in public parks to reduce the risk of fires.

Austria ranked 12th in the 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report prepared by the World Economic Forum. The Philippines ranked 79th overall among 136 countries and a dismal sixth among eight in Southeast Asia, with our score lowest in keeping tourists safe. Singapore ranked just a notch lower than Austria; Malaysia was 26th; Thailand, 34th; Indonesia, 42nd, and Vietnam, 67th. At least we were ahead of Laos (94th) and Cambodia (101st).

Despite terrorist attacks or plots, Spain was ranked No. 1, followed by France, Germany, Britain and the US. Obviously, tourists’ safety is not the top consideration in the rankings.

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So what makes a country competitive in travel and tourism?

Among the first steps taken in visiting is booking accommodations and transportation. In my case, reserving a room online in a hotel within the Vienna “ring” was hassle-free, and my choice is exactly as advertised and what I expected.

As in my previous visit here, I also bought my ticket online for the train from the airport to the city center. It was as efficient as ever: I was in the city in 16 minutes flat, as promised. Arriving at the airport, I breezed through immigration and got my luggage from the carousel in record time.

There’s free high-speed wi-fi on the airport train, and on the hop-on, hop-off double deck tourist bus with recorded commentary on the sights in several languages. The background music, naturally, is Mozart.

A major player in our travel industry tried to bring such buses to Manila several years ago, but gave up after running into a mountain of mostly unreasonable requirements.

The bus tours are color-coded to cover all the city districts. The complete package includes free passes to some of the museums and palaces, guided walking tours, a ride on a horse-drawn carriage within the city ring, and a boat cruise on the Danube.

Tourists get thirsty quickly in the heat wave. But there are drinking fountains at several of the bus stops, where tired, sweaty travelers can drink straight from the tap.

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Austria is a wealthy country and it’s unfair to compare developing Philippines with an advanced economy. But Vienna also went through the problems of a developing state, the pollution of the Industrial Age, plus devastation from two world wars that drastically reduced the nation’s population from 54 million to just over 8 million.

Becoming a sustainable city is a long, complicated and expensive process. The Danube, for example, used to cause the city much grief with regular floods. The city lacked piped water and sanitation systems. Ordinary people cleaned themselves in communal baths or drew water from communal wells. Garbage disposal was haphazard.

The spread of diseases that killed millions in Europe in previous centuries surely had something to do with unsanitary surroundings and contaminated water. But the Europeans cleaned up their rivers, showing the world that this is possible. Vienna set up a system of small dams, controlling nature and taming the Danube’s floods.

Today the city is proud to claim that it has the world’s most beautiful building for incinerating garbage.

As for the toilets, Asians will miss bidets, but there are public lavatories everywhere, with toilet paper and running water to keep the premises clean. Providing facilities that give justice to the term “comfort room” is another necessity in any place that wants to draw more tourists.

The quality of tourism infrastructure must be a priority. Vienna, the top tourist destination in Austria, has a subway, light rail trains and efficient public bus system. It has day tours to its second most visited city, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birthplace, Salzburg.

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Investments in tourism infrastructure pay off. Austria, which has the highest per capita tourism earnings in the European Union, had 26.7 million foreign visitors in 2015. Tourism accounts for nearly nine percent of Austrian GDP. In 2015, this amounted to 16.5 billion euros. That’s a whopping P930 billion at current rates.

Singapore, which has few natural attractions, understands the importance of the travel industry and has created the infrastructure to position itself as a Southeast Asian conference center. Austria has a combination of natural, historical and manmade attractions backed by the necessary travel infrastructure, making it a conference destination. This is the second consecutive year, for example, that the summit of the Global Editors’ Network, which I am attending, is being held here in Vienna. There are 750 participants from around the world.

President Duterte is reportedly being advised by some of his trusted aides that strengthening Philippine tourism takes too much work, and he will no longer be in power when the results are felt. Better to just slap new or higher taxes on everything, even if it is instantly inflationary and will reduce purchasing power, making the poor poorer.

A president, however, should also think long-term for the nation. Tourism generates meaningful jobs and livelihood opportunities on site, reducing the urge for people to seek employment overseas or migrate to cities.

President Duterte should stop treating tourism posts as sinecures for his supporters and find competent people who understand the industry. It’s a highly competitive sector.

When the facilities and tourism infrastructure are in place and unique attractions and national heritage sites are preserved, visitors will come. Slogans, ad campaigns and branding will be used mainly to enhance the appeal. The product will sell itself.