5 B tourists, B in visitor receipts and 5 M new jobs in 6 yrs., says DoT

Department of Tourissm (DoT) Secretary Roberto “Obet” Pagdanganan has recently unveiled an ambitious DoT plan to bring five billion tourists into the country by 2010.

Pagdanganan said the economic impact of the DoT program and projection is the creation of five million new jobs and $5 billion in tourists receipts. The study is based on an average daily expenditure of $100 per tourist with an average length of stay of 10 days.

Pagdanganan a master communicator and sales expert, said this can be achieved through three key strategies:

1) Balanced and focused marketing program;

2) Inculcate culture of tourism among Filipinos;

3) Develop strong partnership among DoT, private sector, partner non-government agencies (NGAs) and local government units (LGUs).

Pagdanganan said the most important and the hardest to carry out among the three strategies is a “balanced and focused marketing program” for it would make or unmake the whole tourism development plan.

Expressing his great optimism, he said if other ASEAN countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia can do it why can’t the Philippines.

Last year, Malaysia had international visitor arrivals of 10,500,000; Thailand, 9,703,000; Singapore, 6,125,480; Indonesia 4,400,000, and Vietnam, 2,428,735. In comparison, the Phiippines had only 1,907,226.

But, Pagdanganan was quick to add that now the Philippines can easily reach the 2.5 million visitor arrivals by the end of 2004 and break the all-time high record of 2.2 million.

He believed this goal is achievable through the DoT’s aggressive campaign, collaboration with the local and travel trade and the stability of the Arroyo administration.

Pagdanganan said the successful implementation of the WOW Philippines and the Ganda ng Pilipinas, Galing ng Pilipino (GP2), the perceived political stability of the Arroyo administration as well as the generally peaceful elections resulted to a cumulative growth rate of 27.14 percent based on the number of visitors who arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in January to May 19 this year.

The DoT executive pushed for the continuity of the past tourism programs of former Secretary Richard Gordon and further intensified the local and international tourism promotion through the Biyahe Tayo Program and the Ganda ng Pilipinas, Galing ng Pilipino (GP2) program which complement the thrusts of WOW Philippines campaign.

The DoT likewise, would step up the marketing efforts in the short haul markets of Asian and Southeast Asian countries as well as Filipino communities in the US.

Pagdanganan also urged the local travel trade to continue as active partners in sustainable tourism development.

Going back to the grand DoT plan to bring into the country five million foreign tourists, Pagdanganan said the initial primary market target will be Japan, Korea, China that includes Hong Kong and Taiwan; USA that includes Guam, Hawaii and Balikbayan, while the secondary markets will be Europe, Australia, ASEAN countries and others.

Pagdanganan said the three initial targets of the marketing strategy are: 1) the divers; 2) the golfers, and 3) health care tourists. He said Korea and Japan have four to five million divers each, while the US has six to seven million divers. He said there are also millions of divers in Europe and Australia. “We have the best diving sites in the world and they would certainly come and visit us,’’ he said.

Pagdanganan said Philippine golf courses and care givers including medical doctors and dentists need no elaboration forwe have the best, too.