CASE STUDY ABOUT THE FUTURE OF PHILIPPINE TOURISM

Submitted By:

Tamayo, Maria Alexandra D.

Background of the Study
This study attempted to give feasible solutions and examine the negative factors that
influence tourism in the Philippines. Philippines is among the top consideration of foreign and
local visitors because of its attractive islands and also because it is a practical travel destination
but the Philippines is way behind from other neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore,
Indonesia and Vietnam. The advantage of the neighboring countries is that they share borders
with each other, unlike the Philippines where tourists enter and exit by air and their road and
airport infrastructure is excellent to support multi-country trips and tour packages. The tourism is
slowly growing because the tourism industry has diligent and deliberate public policy attention
as well as an implementation strategy for sustainable economic benefits to the country. For an
archipelagic country such as the Philippines that is blessed with beautiful, world class beaches
and coastal resources, tourism is vital to its overall socioeconomic development plan.
Considered as part of a country's export industry with importers as tourists visiting the country,
tourism has the potential to unlock innumerable economic opportunities for a country but there
are negative factors that may affect the tourism in the Philippines which are politics, economic,
social, technology, environmental issues which can contribute to a global perception.

The global perception tends to view that as long as that a certain crisis or problem is
there, it is not safe or hard to go for tourist to be there. Such as the implementation of
infrastructure projects by the government and private sectors involving privatization of airports in
major tourism destinations or the government. Every major and minor tourism destination
should start developing their tourism industry such as providing the needed facilities and
services to the transients. They must go beyond the usual institutional excuse that they cannot
satisfy the needed administrative requirements. Developing of transport infrastructures such as
airports, roads, rail roads and seaports will be a great contribution for the betterment of tourism
for easier access and fast commuting. Apart from investments in connectivity and access,
tourist destinations need investments in destination infrastructure such as rooms, water,
sanitation, and power to sustain growth.

Statement of the Problem

The study aims to identify the negative factors that influence tourism in the Philippines.

Specifically, this aims to answer the following questions:

1. What are the factors that contribute to the global perception?

 2. What is the reason to neglect the implementation of infrastructures in tourist
destinations?
3. What plans should the Duterte administration make in order to improve the number of
foreign and local visitors in the Philippines?

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths
1. Partnership and cooperation from other
neighboring countries
2. Potential source of increased tourism flow
3. Large-scale of foreign and local visitors
4. Employment-generating potential
5. Investment in infrastructures
Opportunities
1. Growth opportunity in local tourist sites
2. Betterment of transportation system
3. Strengthen eco-tourism
4. Developing new tourism and products
5. Enhancing travel packages
6. Improving transportation infrastructure
such as airports, seaports and rail roads
7. Tourism should include domestic visitors
8. Investment in destination infrastructure
Weaknesses
1. Global perception
2. Lack of accessibility in transportation in
other travel destination
3. Poor transportation system
4. Less variety of travel destination
Threats
1. Natural disasters such as typhoons,
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
2. Climate change
3. Territorial conflicts
4. Competition from other ASEAN countries

Alternative Course of Action (ACA):

 Further implementation of National Tourism Development Plan – With the help of DOT
and other government organizations, this plan will prioritize improving policies on access,
connectivity, and security as well to enhance programs. By developing and offering
modified, competitive and sustainable product as well as the smooth transportation across
the Philippine archipelago from land, air and sea, tourist will have better reason to purchase
multi-destination packages through large-scale network of airports and seaports across the
country.
 Strengthen the partnership in other countries – Duterte administration should strengthen
the partnership and cooperation to have a close relation in neighboring and other countries
with the help of ASEAN and UNWTO, this will contribute a lot to have potential source of
 increasing tourism flow of foreign visitors. Also, it helps to sustain and promote tourism in
the country and increase in economic growth.
 Managing environmental policy – Since the Philippines is known to have many natural
calamities such as typhoon, earthquakes and volcanic eruption, collaboration of DENR and
DOT, should have an environmental policy that can minimize the negative factors to
preserve and protect the biodiversity in every major and minor tourism destinations.
 Improving the transport system – Improving transportations like building infrastructures
such as airports, seaports, road networks and rail roads in major and minor tourism
destinations, can have an easier access and to support multi-destination trips and tour
packages.
 Use media to tone down global perception – Media has a big impact when it comes to
spreading reports that is happening in the country. DOT should use media as a platform to
help boost the tourism in the country.
 Offering adventurous and experiential travel package – Philippines is rich in nature with
world class beaches and beautiful scenery. The tourism industry should offer a spectacular
travel package with extreme activities such as sightseeing using virtual reality technologies.

Recommendation

The article demonstrates the negative factors that influence tourism in the Philippines
which are politics, economic, social, technology, environmental issues that contribute to a global
perception. Establishing a plan or campaign can eradicate the global perception such as further
implementation of the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) because it needs to provide
a sustainable product to offer to the international visitors such as adventurous, inspiring and
healing experiences when they travel and also have an excellent transportation for easier travel
to the tourist destination such as airports, seaports and rail roads so that the rates of foreign and
local tourist will increase. The Department of Tourism (DOT) together with other organizations
should implement the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) for betterment of promotion,
development and regulation of tourism in both domestic and international and become a major
pillar of economic growth in the Philippines and with partnership and cooperation of ASEAN,
APEC and UNWTO will have a potential in numerous economic opportunities, foreign investors
and international tourist. Planning for the future of tourism in the Philippines is a major task to do
by the government, organizations and agencies under the tourism industry because there are a
lot of possibilities that they might encounter the same problem and by that they should be aware
and prepared if ever an uncertain event happened again.