Retirement haven?
We have been trying to sell the Philippines as a retirement haven for I don’t know how long now. While there may have been some trickle of retirees who eventually settled down here, the volume does not suggest we have been successful in our attempt.
Indeed, official figures peg the current level of retirees at 42,511 foreigners enrolled in the retirement plan. If we took into account what we have spent on promoting the program and the cost of maintaining a bureaucracy in the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA), I am sure the cost wouldn’t justify the result.
The worst part is that PRA is only targeting 100,000 up to 2020. That isn’t commensurate to their loud protestations of a promising market in their press releases. I suspect they regularly make noise to support their proposal for a bigger budget.
The problem with the PRA and how they go about attracting foreign retirees to settle here is as always, they put the cart before the horse. They emphasize marketing without developing the product. Disappointment with the product can hinder future growth.
Other than preferential treatment in the granting of visas for the retirees and our post card pretty countryside, the PRA and the Department of Tourism ignored the fact that retirees are usually old people who are health conscious.
Sure, we have excellent doctors here and there are good to excellent tertiary hospitals that can handle all sorts of medical conditions and emergencies. But access to these medical centers is limited to those who choose to retire near Metro Manila and Cebu. Even then, horrible traffic conditions can result in a patient dying before reaching those hospitals.
Actually, access to emergency medical treatment is a problem not just for retirement tourism but to tourism in general. None of our important tourist destinations, including Boracay, El Nido and Bohol have medical facilities that can at the very least, stabilize a heart attack and stroke victim so the patient can be airlifted to a tertiary hospital that can handle the case.
I have often heard of people dying in Boracay for lack of such medical facilities. Even the private sector is guilty of neglect here because developers of tourism destinations fail to consider the need for a medical facility equipped and properly manned to handle emergencies.
No wonder PRA data shows that in the past four years, a third of foreign “retirees” in the Philippines belong to the still-active 40 to 49-year old bracket. Under PRA rules, foreigners as young as 35 years old can avail of the retirement program benefits. PRA General Manager Valentino Cabansag told
Reuters “Right now, it’s the ambulatory and funloving retirees that we are targeting.”
How many people in the prime of their lives want to retire at all? Maybe these people are just using PRA incentives to go around immigration requirements. I am sure that if an honest audit is made of PRA’s performance since it was created, the results will reveal a good example of how to waste taxpayer funds.
The thing is… any retirement program must be implemented in the context of a broader tourism program. We surely have very attractive sites ideal for tourism development. But we have to take care not just of the airports and the hotels but also of the emergency medical facilities.
Not too far from Metro Manila, the once popular Puerto Azul Resort in Cavite was said to have been considered as a retirement haven by a Japanese group. They particularly like the golf course and the nice view of Manila Bay. But the potential investors backed out after realizing that there are no emergency medical facilities that can be accessed within minutes of a heart attack or a stroke.
Come to think of it, if you ended up with a similar medical emergency in Tagaytay Highlands or the fancy beach resort communities like Punta Fuego, your next destination is an appointment with St. Peter. Young people who plan and manage tourism developments have yet to feel their mortality and that explains the neglect of the problem.
The tourism department should work together with the health department in putting up such emergency facilities within minutes of important tourist destinations. The private sector like Ayala that is also now into healthcare can also respond to this need.
Indeed, Ayala now owns the plush El Nido resorts and should consider such a medical facility in the mainland that can also service the community there. They could give the facility a CSR angle as a means of giving back to the community where they make so much money from.
The health department should allocate resources to upgrade the capability of some of their provincial hospitals close to tourist destinations. The bare minimum is the capability to stabilize a heart attack or stroke patient during those critical minutes after an episode. Then there should be medivac facilities to bring the patient to a proper tertiary hospital.
I have always said that there is something wrong about spending a lot of money promoting attractive tourism destinations before we are ready to receive the visitors. The visitor experience may end up being far from satisfactory.
I learned my advertising and marketing principles from the late Tony de Joya. He has always emphasized to me and to clients that there is nothing worse than a bad or even half baked product promoted with good advertising.
This is even truer in this social media age. Today, one person’s bad experience related in a travel blog can negate the millions spent on very attractive ads on London buses and the like.
The news of one tourist dying of heart attack because the tourist or retirement haven does not have proper medical facilities can spread like wildfire. That will discourage others from visiting or retiring there.
But what can we expect when the tourism secretary can do nothing more than market the country because he has no control over infrastructure like roads, airports and health centers? Hopefully, the next administration can do a proper job by doing first things first. Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.