PBBM sets infra, service model in bid to boost tourism in PHL

THE government is eyeing a nationwide infrastructure and service benchmark for the local tourism sector to boost its competitiveness abroad.

During his second Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. said he wants local tourism-related infrastructures to be at least at par with other top tourist destinations such as Singapore.

He pointed out how the city-state attracts tourists despite its “limited natural resources.”

Such facilities, he said, should also be accompanied with world-class services, particularly health care, such as those in Hawaii and Thailand.

“We just have to support the plan to develop all of these enabling environments— the policy, conditions, and infrastructure,” Marcos Jr. said.

Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-frasco took note of Marcos’s observation, which she hopes to implement by replicating the tourism benchmark of other countries like Singapore.

“To benchmark their policies in this regard would be the direction that we would take per your instructions,” Frasco said.

“Many measures could be improved as far as policy regulations, both on the national and local level, and proper coordination—to be able to focus on the overall tourist experience—from the time that he arrives to the point of entry to the time that he gets to his point of destination,” she added.

Since the government eased arrival protocols for foreign tourists last February, the Department of Tourism (DOT) reported foreign tourists arrivals in the country reached over 500,000 as of last May.

DOT expects foreign tourist arrivals this year to reach 1 million to 1.2 million as the government further relaxed their pre-departure requirements last May.