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Nibbling
at the huge Chinese tourist market While the Philippines can’t compete head on with the global business community for the lucrative and high-growth Chinese tourist market, it has been making some moves lately to get its own decent share of this jet-setting sector. Although a bit late in the game, the Philippine tourism office is buckling down to business and is in fact ready to open shop in Beijing next month. Tourism, according to former tourism chief and now senator-elect Dick Gordon, is a key driver of the local economy, and his idea of tapping the Chinese market is a step in the right direction. Now that WOW Dick will be in the Senate in the next six years, let’s see what legislative measures he will initiate to give tourism sector a shot in the arm. While Gordon again scored a first in local tourism by planting the Philippine flag in Beijing, he leaves his successor, Obet Pagdanganan, along with players of the tourism industry, the mammoth challenge of formally making a strong bid to nibble at least a bit of the promising, yet demanding, Chinese outbound tourists. The Tourism department has taken steps to ensure the success of the China mission. However, considering the vast potential of the Chinese market, it would take more than the usual advertising, promotions and media hype for the Philippines to figure prominently in the map or the itinerary of Chinese tourists. Millions Of Globetrotting Chinese China – with over a billion people and an ever-expanding economy – has emerged as a major source of tourists, according to the World Tourism Organization. By 2020, the WTO forecasts that over 100 million Chinese tourists will trot the globe and spark a string of tourism resurgence in many parts of the world. It makes sense for Department of Tourism (DOT) to establish the Beijing tourism office and scale down operations in some European offices. China, after all, is where the action will be. Last year, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) reported that almost 20 million Chinese tourists vacationed overseas, with Thailand being its number one preferred destination in Southeast Asia. CNTA is the Chinese government agency responsible for developing, promoting and regulating both outbound and inbound tourism in China. No Harm Trying Again And Again Dick Gordon’s highly-rated WOW Philippines may have landed him a seat in the Senate, but it was not enough to make the Philippines one of the Chinese’s top 10 most favored destinations. We only managed to attract a measly 39,000 Chinese tourists in 2003. DOT is aiming to double the number of arrivals of Chinese tourists to 78,000 this year. The target is achievable, tourism officials say, but if you’re talking about 20 million or so potential Chinese tourists, the target number is nothing to crow about. If the highly publicized WOW Philippines campaign did not work, what do Obet Pagdanganan and his staff intend to do it? I am told that for starters, DOT is developing a dedicated Philippine website for Chinese tourists. Aware of the Chinese’s difficulty in the English language, the Philippine website is featured in Mandarin to reach out to the big-spending Mandarin-speaking Chinese market. Additionally, the tourism department is organizing familiarization tours for Chinese travel agents to make them aware of the different destinations being marketed. First batch set sometime in June involves a band of travel agents from the Guilin province of China, to be followed by more groups of tourism agents from other Chinese cities and provinces. Talking The Talk In Chinese Language is definitely a challenge. The Chinese may marvel at our world-class beaches, but we may lose them if we do not have people who can speak their language. Training Philippine tourism workers in Mandarin and Fookien, I am also told, is now top priority in anticipation of heavy tourism arrivals from China. Chinese travel agents say that we lack professional tour guides who are trained to mingle with Chinese-speaking travelers and attend to their special needs. This is why traveling Chinese tourist still prefer Chinese-speaking tourist destinations like Hong Kong and Singapore. It was observed that Australia was able to make it as one of the 10 favorite destinations of Chinese travelers because local tour guides continuously train to improve their verbal skills in servicing Chinese tourists. Are We Ready? At a glance, we have what the average Chinese tourist is looking for. We have perhaps the biggest shopping mall and golf course ratio per square mile in Asia. We have casinos, entertainment venues and other leisure sites mushrooming in and around Metro Manila and the major provinces. Compared to Japan or some exotic Caribbean destination, our prices are on the low end. The China International Travel Service (CITS) cited that the high cost of tour packages to popular destinations such as South Africa and the Caribbean drive Chinese tourists to look for other options. Definitely, a package tour to world class Boracay for as low as $1,000 is an attractive alternative to a Caribbean vacation with average cost of $2,400. But are we prepared to handle them? I have experienced on numerous occasions how store cashiers fumble whenever foreigners or even balikbayans pay for their purchase with their overseas-issued credit cards or travelers’ cheques. Or of resort and hotel employees mixing up reservations or fouling up on service standards. Or store clerks trying to rip off visitors by doubling, if not tripling the prices of merchandise when sensing unsuspecting foreigners. Surely, we don’t need such breakdown in customer service. At present, we may not be able to compete with China’s booming multi-billion dollar manufacturing export industries, but we can keep on trying to lure their tourists.
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