“But our tourism woes do not end with our NAIA terminal problems, nor our promotional gimmicks without focused market strategies”
Along with South Koreans who have made our country an escape from their dreadfully cold winters, the two countries accounted for a full third of our visitors. All other things being equal, we are closer by air to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and of course, China. No matter how we try, we will not be as successful as Thailand or the rest of the Indo-Chinese peninsula in attracting Europeans. Also, but for their ultra-rich, European tourists spend much less than Asian travelers.
From Joe Aspiras’ highly successful “Where Asia wears a smile” to the sun and sea focused approaches, to Gemma Cruz-Araneta’s “Rediscover Philippines” to Dick Gordon’s “Wow Philippines!” to Mon Jimenez’ “It’s more fun…”, now DOT is reportedly coming out with a “new, improved” tagline . Support them with properly designed advertising and collaterals for their particular target markets. That would be more cost-effective.
Don’t even think of spending billions of pesos more trying to make the NAIA complex infrastructure better. And similarly, if we can double the salaries of policemen, why are we niggardly when it comes to overtime pay for our immigration agents manning the air terminals? Or our traffic controllers?