Thursday, October 23, 2008 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
By Nancy R. Cudis
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE tourism sector remains resilient amid the global financial turbulence sparked by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, an industry official said.
Francesco Frangialli, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General, said the people’s penchant for things they consider as vital parts of their lives, like transportation and holidays, has buoyed the tourism industry.
“They want to preserve these things, and so in their travels (during a financial crisis), they seek alternatives, such as cheaper accommodations and low-budget carriers, or they postpone their holiday vacations.
“Tourism is more resilient than other big sectors of countries. As a whole, it may be affected by the crisis, but the effect will not be much,” he said at Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa Tuesday ahead of the 6th UNWTO International Tourism Forum for Parliamentarians and Local Authorities.
Tourism Secretary Ace Durano admitted, though, that the crisis will “definitely temper” the Philippines’ growth.
“Before the crisis, we were doing like 100 kilometers per hour in our tourism development. With what is happening, but because of the strength of the Asia Pacific, we are doing like 80 kilometers per hour now,” he said.
Durano disclosed that last year’s tourism growth was at 8.4 percent, hitting the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) annual target range of eight to 10 percent.
The financial turmoil, though, could shave off this year’s target growth by a couple of points.
While the DOT is calculating a possible five to seven percent growth only for this year, it is still bent on getting five million tourists to come to the country by 2010.
“For the past four years, the Philippines has broadened its market base such that China, which was not in our list of top 10 tourist markets before, is now fast catching up,” Durano said.
To strengthen relations with China, the DOT is planning to allocate P160 million to set up a 2,000-square-meter area at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo where 200 nations and international organizations are targeted to participate.
The top 10 tourist markets of the country for the first half of this year were (in this order) Korea, United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore and United Kingdom.
For Cebu, China was the sixth top market for the same period, accounting for a 2.96 percent share.
“Asia, along with the Middle East, has been a fast-growing region for the past 15 years. It has surpassed the Americas as the second most visited regions after Europe. It is (possible) that on or before 2020, China will be the number one destination, replacing my country, France,” Frangialli said.
UNWTO expected Asia and the Middle East to experience a “softer slowdown” in tourism due to increased revenues from resources, like oil, that are boosting investments in tourism infrastructure; than Europe, where 80 percent of the traffic originates within the region and many tourist markets are confronting tougher economic pressures.
In a report to Frangialli delivered last September, Peter Keller, director of the Tourism Institute and member of the UNWTO strategic group, said the global economic crisis will only have “limited effect” on the long-term trend of tourism growth.
He added that authorities are faced with the important task of building confidence that will allow tourism suppliers to invest in the industry and visitors to continue availing themselves of consumer services.
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