NEWS

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

THE Department of Tourism (DOT) and Department of Transportation (DOTr) will soon be signing an agreement to implement a convergence program aimed at expanding the number of airports in the country in a bid to further boost tourist arrivals.

This was disclosed by DOT official Arturo P. Boncato Jr. in a presentation during the seventh meeting of the Tourism Coordinating Council (TCC). Boncato, undersecretary for Tourism Regulation Coordination and Resource Generation of the DOT, also presented the timeline for the proposed convergence program and for its implementation from 2020 until 2022, the last year of the Duterte administration.

He told the BusinessMirror that representatives of the DOT and DOTr are currently finalizing the list of priority airports to be included in the “Leveraging Infrastructure Program for Airport Development” (Lipad, fly in the vernacular), after consultations had been held with airlines.

The agencies are now in the process of “seeking support from the boards of the CAAP [Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines] and other airport authorities,” Boncato added.

Both agencies are aiming for a formal signing of a memorandum of agreement by their respective Secretaries in September, which will commence Lipad’s immediate takeoff.

NTDP

EVERY year, thereafter, Boncato emphasized, both government agencies will collaborate “in the preparation of annual tourism airport infrastructure program…in support of tourism value propositions of destinations,” aside from the regular implementation of the convergence activities with the private sector and other agencies.

“Development and enhancement of airside and landslide facilities priority tourism airports is crucial to meeting the NTDP [National Tourism Development Plan] targets to attract more foreign tourists and domestic passengers,”
he said during the TCC meeting.

Under the NTDP 2016-2022, the DOT is targeting to attract some 12 million foreign visitor arrivals in 2022. The domestic tourism targets are being revised after having been exceeded already in 2018, where 110 million heads were recorded. The original target for 2022 was 89.2 million domestic tourists.

“Lipad also aims to provide guidance to DOTr and concerned attached agencies in ranking airports based on tourism importance and airport demand index in order to address the needs of the tourism industry,” Boncato explained.

Clusters

Boncato said many of these priority airports will fall under the DOT’s tourism clusters, seven of which are in northern Philippines, six in central Philippines, and seven in southern Philippines. Of these clusters, nine are dubbed “gateway clusters,” which host international airports, as well as 49 tourism development areas.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said in a statement she considers the TCC Seventh Meeting as “very productive and fruitful with an impressive turnout from its 25-member agencies.”

Aside from updating members on Lipad, she said the DOT also presented the state of the Philippine tourism industry, an update on the Tourism Road Infrastructure Project (TRIP) it implements with the Department of Public Works and Highways, as well as DOT’s new endeavor for the local communities with its proposed “TouRIST” (Transforming Communities toward Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Tourism) program.

“We are elated that the members of the council are unanimous in expressing their continued support to the aforecited projects and initiatives of the department,” she said.

Exciting times

THE TCC is a 25-member body created under Republic Act 9593 (Tourism Act of 2009), which serves as coordinating body for national tourism development efforts including the NTDP, and includes heads of concerned national agencies and government offices, DOT attached agencies, nongovernment organizations and the Tourism Congress of the Philippines.

The TCC’s last meeting was in February 2017 under then Tourism Chief Wanda Corazon Tulfo-Teo, where they approved the NTDP. The NTDP was later presented to the Cabinet for Duterte’s approval.

“Tourism is at its most exciting times. The Philippines has kept a high profile in the world tourism radar,” Romulo Puyat said in her keynote speech at the TCC meeting. “We are still among the sought-after destinations by many foreign travelers. In fact, foreign tourist arrivals to the country continue to grow by leaps and bounds.”

Some 4.1 million foreign visitors were received by the country in the first half of 2019, up 11.43 percent, she noted, with inbound tourism receipts reaching P245 billion, up 17.6 percent from the same period last year.

Halfway mark

Romulo Puyat said the tourism industry is reaching its “halfway mark.”

Hence, “it is time for us to come together and evaluate all our tourism convergence efforts, assess the effectiveness of the strategies and programs identified, make adjustments on the plan if needed, and prioritize the completion of remaining tasks at hand to ensure that the NTDP targets are achieved by its completion in 2022.”

The DOT chief reiterated her agency’s firm role as advocates of sustainable and responsible tourism, as it achieves its annual targets.

As such, she said her priority thrusts include the pursuit of strong partnerships to ensure sustainable development of tourism, the review and assessment of existing tourism products while conceptualizing and developing new products and expansion of the current market base.

Her other thrusts are: “Improvement of policies on access, connectivity and security; evaluation and endorsement of tourism development projects for investments; restart of global advertising and promotions efforts; continuous monitoring and enforcement of mandatory accreditation; and, encouragement and assistance of local government units in crafting a sustainable tourism development plan.”

Source: Business Mirror