How Philippine tourism evolved (Conclusion)

Please read Part 1 first, "A Strange Kind of Love Affair," = https://tribune.net.ph/2023/11/strange-kind-of-love-affair-1/)

Author's Note. This article is an open letter to the Department of Tourism, hoping it offers valuable input to its long-term tourism strategies. I am offering pro-bono consultations. I was the team leader for an ADB-funded DoT study on the Region VIII (Samar-Leyte) Tourism Master Plan and Region II (Cagayan Valley) master plan circa mid-90s.

In my view, there are three major factors driving Philippine tourism today: 1) beaches; 2) cuisine; 3) heritage.

During the 1990s, tourists from the West sought refuge from the turmoil of their lives in the "paradise"of pristine Philippine beaches. There were three types of foreign tourists: 1) high-end regular tourists (a major source of tourism income) who stayed for a week or so in 3- to 5-star hotels, and went back to their jobs or businesses; 2) low-end backpackers, the professional drifters, who lingered because they were not part of the rat race, and had plenty of time; and 3) expats, such as renegades and drifters, who dug in and decided to live in paradise indefinitely, some escaping secret past crimes.

Phase 1 — The backpacker

The backpackers were the pioneers, having a special role in discovering pristine places unknown to tourists and to the tourism industry and DoT. This was how Boracay and Puerto Galera were born, when there was no electricity or water yet, no hotels, only tents and the makeshift cottages of locals. As a young journalist, myself a former backpacker having hitchhiked through Europe, I had the privilege of seeing these undiscovered places.

I first hit Boracay when it had no electricity or water, just a pure exhilarating 17-kilometer beach of talcum-powder snow-white sand. I walked one afternoon from an orange sunset to a deep-dark evening, groping with no flashlight. It was the best beach walk I ever had, uplifting my spirit. I stayed in a cheap make-shift cottage. I asked the boatman to come back the next day with food and water provisions, so I could stay longer.

Boracay "exploded" after a German backpacker wrote about its beauty in a large-circulation German magazine. In Puerto Galera, it was the same story, French and Scandinavian backpackers sending tantalizing articles and photos back to their local media. No one planned this. It was pure accident. Perhaps DoT could commission foreign backpackers to discover new places.

In Puerto Galera, I stayed in the hut of a fisherman who knew backpackers were pouring in by word of mouth. He had a good marketing strategy, offering mind-altering mushroom omelets. I said, "Just make mine regular." A French female backpacker traveling solo said, "You don't know what you're missing." The fisherman's breakfast omelet spread like wildfire to the backpackers across Europe.

Phase II — The renegades

The backpackers were followed by the renegades, another family of drifters, who dug in, upgrading the crude cottages of the locals, introducing foreign cuisine, and expanding the tourism market. The locals learned quickly from them — raking the beach in the morning like a Japanese garden and introducing foreign cuisine, such as filet mignon, and frozen beer mugs.

They brought in new markets from their origins. Among the renegades were a South African mercenary, featured in Part 1, and an ex-CIA agent who built the best ever three-star resort of that time. Prostitution and pollution started to creep in.

Phase III — The big timers

In time, the big timers moved in with their five-star hotels and scuba service. They brought in sophisticated e-marketing and PR strategies that triggered the bigger second explosion. Boracay had black sewage water leaking onto the snow-white sand beach. The DoT and the LGUs were to blame for a lack of forward thinking, not knowing the effects of rapid global growth.

Then came the Koreans with their tourists huddled in Korean hotels. They had a Korean rush hour in the early evening.

The attraction of Philippine tourism was so awesome that a French backpacker put all his savings to buy a small island off the coast of Mindoro Occidental, marrying a dominant Ilongga who ran his life. He regretted it. I told him, "You can buy an island but not happiness." Another French guy sold everything he had, bought a schooner, and when I met him in Puerto Galera, had circled the globe twice in a two-year period with his wife and son.

Our tourism assets are so mind-boggling that if we wanted to, we could beat Thailand in the tourism game — if we could just solve the airline route problem.

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