(Eagle News)–President Bongbong Marcos has directed the consolidation of tourism services to make the Philippines competitive in the global tourism market.
The President gave the directive after meeting with members of the Private Sector Advisory Council Tourism Sector to discuss plans to attract tourists to the country.
In giving the directive, the President recounted a friend’s decision to go to Thailand instead of the Philippines because in the first, everything tourism-related is being taken care of by service providers.
“…But he said in the Philippines [I book] the hotel, I have to be the one to arrange for my driver, I have to be the one to arrange my tour guide, and if I want to go out of town, then I pay each step of the way,” the President recounted.
“So there’s the thing. I guess, you know, consolidate the system. So that is because when you’re on vacation, you just want to stay at the beach and have a nice time,” he added.
He also directed the Department of Tourism to look into the possibility of tapping other fields to entice tourists.
“The one area that I think is easy is sports development because they (athletes) are here. We just have to make the facilities better. Also, food tourism has huge potential but it’s largely untapped. There’s a lot of room to improve,” he said.
During the meeting, meanwhile, PSAC recommended a 30-day visa-free entry for tourists while the streamlining of the e-visa process is ongoing, the possibility of tapping a third-service provider to handle the e-visa system, improvement in airport connectivity and capacity, and a VAT refund scheme for tourists, among others.
Last year, tourist arrivals in the country amounted to 5.4 million.