Tourism sector urged to focus on competitiveness

MANILA, Philippines — Improvement in competitiveness and ease of doing business should be among the focus of the Philippine tourism sector this year in a bid to lure more leisure investments, a property services firm said.

“While the Philippines fares well in terms of the number of world heritage natural sites, price competitiveness, and implementation of tourism marketing and branding in the World Economic Forum’s tourism competitiveness survey, there are several factors where the Philippines needs to improve substantially, primary of which are quality of infrastructure and ease of doing business,” Colliers International Philippines research manager Joey Roi Bondoc told The Star.

Based on the 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness report by the WEF, the Philippines also slipped to 79th place, five spots lower than its ranking in 2015.

Bondoc said to entice more tourism-related enterprises, the government should significantly reduce the number of days and procedures required to start a business.  

“The convoluted bureaucracy has also made the business registration process costly – turning off some local and foreign investors from putting up leisure-related businesses,” Bondoc said.

He added that the Philippines’ rank in global doing business surveys remains dismal and the passage of the Ease of Doing Business Act should help the country improve its global ranking.

The country currently ranks 124th out of 190 countries surveyed by the World Bank in its Ease of Doing Business Report 2019, falling from its previous 113th spot.

Meanwhile, Bondoc said stakeholders should also ensure that activity-based tourism programs are implemented across the country. 

He added that the government should tie up with hotel operators in mounting a nationwide tourism campaign that is activity-based rather than destination-based. 

“This should enable less-known islands to attract more tourists. We believe that tourists will stay longer and spend more if they find more engaging activities to do,” Bondoc said.

Bondoc emphasized that the government’s push to improve the country’s infrastructure backbone bodes well for Philippine tourism, particularly the improvement of the air transport system.

“Colliers believes that the development of an alternative international gateway in Luzon as well as the expansion of regional airports in Visayas and Mindanao should further entice foreigners to visit the country, improve Philippine tourism’s competitiveness and eventually boost demand for tourism-related establishments and services,” he said.

Moreover, Bondoc stressed that improving the country’s travel and tourism competitiveness would help the government’s target of reaching 12 million foreign tourists in 2022 under the National Tourism Development Plan(NTDP).

“This, in turn, should boost hotel occupancy rates and entice local and foreign businessmen to ramp up their leisure-related investments in the country,” Bondoc added.