Gordon tells PATA: RP focusing strongly on shorthaul markets

With the global marketing scheme, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) newly elected chairman Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon is confident that RP will gain inroads in improving the short haul markets involving Korea, China and Japan.

Gordon will be presenting this marketing scheme to the 51st PATA Annual Conference in New Delhi, India on April 14-18. The tourism chief together with 15 representatives from the government and the private sector will join 750 other delegates in the prestigious conference. This year’s theme is “Tourism–Looking Ahead and Beyond.”

“Aside from targetting the North Asian region, we will also be targetting other markets such as North America and Europe due to the fragmentation of the market and high media costs, Gordon said.”

The conference continues to be the annual premier travel event in the calendar year for leading luminaries from all segments of the travel and tourism industry.

Gordon will discuss the Visit Philippines 2003 marketing campaign in one session under the “Global Marketing: New World, New Challenges” in response to the challenge of putting the Philippines back on the traveler’s map and positioning the country as a premier Asian destination.

He said that the DoT envisions a focused, well-planned and strong marketing effort in conjunction with the Visit Philippines 2003 and with this new campaign, the tourism industry hopes to address the changing needs and preferences of international travelers today.

He is also set to deliver the welcome address during the South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE) where he will talk on the country’s various tourism products and what government officials are doing to keep their travel and tourism industry alive during this challenging time.

He said, “We want to be a shopping paradise for the Japanese office ladies, a beach haven for the Germans and other Europeans and a culturally rich sightseeing destination for our ASEAN friends.”

He also stressed that the World Trade Organization (WTO) now predicts that the tourism industry will pick up its habitual rhythm of growth by the second half of 2002, as business travel resumes, consumer returns, and the world economy continues its recovery.

Gordon said, “tourism is rebounding especially here in the Asia- Pacific region. Among the regions of the world, international arrivals to East Asia and the Pacific grew by 4 percent in 2001.”

He also said that given a limited budget however, it is imperative to focus our efforts on key areas, so we don’t spread ourselves thin and gain a little. “We have sized the market in the Asia-Pacific region and we are using this analysis to help us prioritize our efforts, we resorted to deep market segmentation.”

DOT’s priority segments where the country has the highest propensity to serve are the short-haul beach lovers, the short-haul sightseers/shoppers and the domestic tourists. Geographically, this means paying more attention to Asian neighbors who are three hours by plane from our shores. “It means that at least 60 percent of our resources will be dedicated to these segments,” Gordon said.

“One of the thrusts of DoT is to focus the efforts on North Asia due to its comparative geographic advantage versus our neighbors and because our country is three hours closer to Japan than alternative white sand destinations in the region,” he also said.

In the PATA confab, Gordon will recognized the indispensable contribution of tourism to the Philippine economic development.