DESTINATION. Clark-bound tavelers crowd the Cebu Pacific check-in counter at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.
ANGELES CITY – “From our American past to our Freeport present, ours is a service economy, principally in the field of leisure, of tourism. There lies our springboard to development.”
Alexander Cauguiran pushed the right button as he mused over the priority agenda of the Pamintuan administration to which he has returned as chief of staff at the Angeles City hall.
Cauguiran knows whereof he speaks, having been a street parliamentarian transposed to the corporate boardroom of the Clark International Airport Corp.
As CIAC executive vice president, Cauguiran was a key player in the tremendous increase of flights at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, actively – read: persuasively and imploringly – participating in various air talks in Asia, including the Middle East, Europe and Oceania.
In the light of this increased air traffic at the DMIA, the Department of Tourism, Region 3 has embarked on seminars on effective customer service for public utility vehicle drivers in its effort to “professionalize their ranks to make the city a tourist-friendly community.”
“Jeepney, taxi and tricycle drivers serve as frontliners in the tourism industry and therefore must be well immersed in value formation and customer relations,” said DOT-3 Director Ronnie Tiotuico.
At the Clark Development Corp., Atty. Felipe Antonio Remollo, new president-CEO, has likewise pinpointed tourism as high potential area for development.
“Make Clark a destination of choice for leisure/sports, MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) and wellness travel in the Asia-Pacific region.” So reads the top spot in CDC Programs for 2011-2012. First step in that direction: A sports tourism forum has been slated at the Freeport on July 19.
In Pampanga, tourism takes premium place too in the development agenda of Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda, arguably second only to her public health advocacy and medical missions.
Even as the Candaba wetlands have been established as the heart of eco-tourism in the province, similar wetlands in the Guagua-Sasmuan-Lubao areas are being tapped as complementary sites. River cruises in both areas are set to start anytime soon.
Primed for cultural tourism are the seven oldest and ornate churches in the second district and lahar-buried San Guillermo church in Bacolor.
The other route to Mount Pinatubo in Porac with the Miyamit waterfalls along the way are also up for development. As well as Nabuclod, in the highland of Floridablanca that rivals, but out-freshes, the cool air of Baguio.
Angeles City. Clark Freeport. Pampanga. Finding convergence in tourism.
Flying near, flying here
In a recent front page story in Punto!, the writer Ding Cervantes noted how distance between the cities of Angeles and Davao has become shorter – some three hours via Cebu – “thanks to the growing number of Cebu Pacific domestic flights that have linked more of the country’s islands and thus also opened up avenues for learning.”
Cebu Pacific has made even more proximate via direct flights the distance between Clark and the Asian cities of Macau, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok. Indeed a most appropriate blurb for its hubbing at the DMIA and servicing the aforesaid cities is Cebu Pacific’s “Flying near, Flying here.”
The world’s top low cost carrier, Air Asia takes into the Clark orbit Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Tiger Airways makes yet another option for a hop to Singapore. Then there is the continuing Korean “invasion” offloaded from Asiana Airlines and Jin Air.
Eighty flights a week at the DMIA. Even without the benefit of cold, hard statistics, it is fairly easy to surmise that the “outbound” – locals departing, far outweigh the “inbound” – foreign nationals arriving, in the tourism exchange at the DMIA.
Why?
“A lot of factors – from the state of facilities at the DMIA to the lack of tourism collaterals about our place to the availability, not to mention the quality of accommodation – that we could discuss till we drop. And still, we will be wanting in tourist arrivals.” So says tour maven Gilda Padua, president of the Alliance of Travel and Tour Agencies of Pampanga (ATTAP).
“What is important is to do inspired, if not aggressive, marketing given with what we have now, if only to show other tourism stakeholders here of the high potential of our place as one premium destination and hopefully move them to do their share,” furthered the proprietress of Ties That Travel.
Already established in the outbound, Ties That Travel is embarking on the inbound side of the tour industry.
At a recent “fam tour” in Bangkok for Pampanga and Tarlac-based travel agents and mediamen, KBS Travel and Intertrade Co. Ltd., a leader in the Thai tourism industry, announced its readiness to do its own “outbounding” to the Clark market in partnership with Ties That Travel.
“This is some sort of returning the favour,” Kosol Boonma, KBS managing director, said as his organization established its niche in the industry with its predominance of the Philippine market.
To jumpstart this partnership, Ties That Travel is organizing a fam tour of Pampanga, Clark and Subic for Thai travel agents.
Sans fanfare, another indefatigable worker helping increase tourist traffic between Clark and other local and foreign destinations is Charles Lim of Selrahco Management and Consultancy Services.
In close association with Cebu Pacific, Lim has been instrumental in initiating exchange visits and fam tours among travel agents and mediamen from various parts of PHL and Asia. The sports tourism forum scheduled at Clark this month is a brainchild of Selrahco.
The DMIA. Cebu Pacific and the other carriers. ATTAP and the other travel agencies. Selrahco. Forming a confluence of opportunities for tourism here.
Tourism summit
At no point in time has this convergence of priorities and confluence of opportunities in tourism obtained hereabouts.
“Carpe diem.” Seize the day, as the Latins say. Strike while the iron is hot, so it is clichéd.
Now is the time for all tourism stakeholders here to get their act together and craft the road map to the development of this industry, so rich in potential that it could very well – on its own – lift the Philippine economy.
Or have you not been looking at Thailand lately? Tsunami, Thaksin’s red shirted mob, the threat of AIDS, the horrendous traffic and all notwithstanding, annual tourist arrivals in old Siam still remained at 17 million.
A tourism summit – a working rather than simply talking forum – makes a good embarkation point. Let’s summit.
