The development of the tourism sector has not been one of the success stories of Philippine economic history, with the tourist-arrivals total growing slowly year after year, reaching a mere six million in 2016. This dismal performance has been widely attributed to the persistent impression abroad about this country’s political stability.
There has been no worse time for the development of the Philippine tourism industry than the period 1972-1986. Those were the years when the Philippines was under martial law and President Ferdinand E. Marcos ruled this country with dictatorial powers. The international community treated Mr. Marcos like a pariah and foreign tourists regarded the Philippines as a politically unstable state. Fearful of civil unrest and turned off by the reports of governmental abuse of citizens’ rights, foreign tourists avoided the Philippines. The Philippine tourism industry stagnated.
The tourism-industry establishments and their host local governments—provinces, cities and municipalities—were faced with a stark choice: accept the situation or devise creative approaches to the industry’s development. They chose the latter course.
Of the various schemes intended to counter the damaging effects of martial law on the Philippine tourism industry, the most creative was the scheme devised and implemented by the government of Cebu and the Cebu tourism industry. The scheme was tantamount to a secession from the Republic of one of the nation’s most populous and historically significant provinces. Since there was nothing they could do about martial law and policymaking in far-off Manila, the government of Cebu and the province’s tourism industry declared the island of Cebu to be “An Island in the Pacific.” That was the tagline—hashtag it would be called today—that Cebu’s hospitality-industry folk used in establishing their island’s geographic location. The decision to resort to the “Island in the Pacific” marketing of Cebu’s tourism industry was a measure of the toxic effect of national politics on Philippine tourism.
The “Island in the Pacific” marketing campaign, led by the aggressive Cebu governor, Emilio Osmeña, was not only very creative; it was also highly successful. The province’s hospitality industry experienced a “Shhboom,” and once-sleepy municipalities suddenly came to life. Argao, Moalboal, Lapulapu, Oslob—places like these were now seeing once-quiet beaches sprouting beach resorts and water-sport facilities. It was a clear case of “Goodbye, Philippines, hello Island in the Pacific.”
This brings me to the situation and prospects of the Philippine tourism industry at the midpoint of 2017. With the steady outflow of bad political and security news out of this country and an equally steady stream of don’t-go-to-the-Philippines advisories to foreigners from their governments, it has occurred to me that, instead of requesting the news idea to tone down their bad-news reporting, the Secretary of Tourism might consider a reversion to the “An Island in the Pacific” approach to tourism promotion.
Considering that the succession of expensive government overseas marketing campaigns—Wow Philippines, It’s More Fun in the Philippines and the recent aborted McCann-Erickson format—have not succeeded in pushing this country’s tourism industry into a sharply higher trajectory, the “Island in the Pacific” approach might just do the trick, Secretary Teo.
“The Philippines: Wonderful Islands in the Pacific.” Sounds good to me.