Attracting tourists

Last week the government finally exempted foreign airlines from paying certain taxes and fees that they complained were discriminatory and imposed only in the Philippines.

The enactment of Republic Act 10374 came too late for Air France-KLM, which scrapped its direct flights between Manila and Europe in April last year, effectively ending all such air interconnection since Philippine carriers cannot fly directly to Europe.

Let’s see if RA 10374, plus the recent positive audit findings by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), will lure back the European carriers, whose passengers account for much of the tourist arrivals in our region.

Without those direct flights, and with the refusal of Europeans to provide travel insurance coverage for the Philippines, millions of Europeans have been flying to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Bali, hopping over to Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi (and increasingly to Cambodia’s Siem Reap) without bothering to take a look at the Philippines.

This is indicated in the official figures for foreign tourist arrivals in 2012. Even with nearly 4.2 million arrivals last year – a nine percent increase from 2011 – the Philippines still lagged behind four of the five founding members (minus Brunei) of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Vietnam, or the so-called ASEAN-6. In 2011, a dismal four percent of 81 million international tourists in Southeast Asia visited the Philippines.

We are also the laggard in the ASEAN-6 in the latest Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report prepared by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Of 140 countries included in the report, the Philippines ranked 82nd, behind Vietnam (80th), Brunei (72nd), Indonesia (70th), Thailand (43rd), Malaysia (34th) and Singapore – the only Asian country in the top 10, retaining its 10th rank from 2011. Cambodia ranked 106th. Laos, Myanmar and Timor-Leste were not included.

Socurced: philstar