Philippine Star
August 1, 2011
There are some basics, not within the jurisdiction of the Tourism Secretary that must be delivered if we are to make any real headway in our tourism program. These are the same basics I have long referred to as the “homework” that must be accomplished even before the Tourism Secretary embarks on road shows abroad. I have said this during the time of former Tourism Secretary Ace Durano and I am saying it again now. Any tourism program foisted on us is just so much hot air unless these basics are met.
First basic requirement is successfully getting ourselves out of the US FAA Category 2 downgrade and taken off the list of countries with a substandard aviation regulatory environment and facilities by European aviation regulators. This Category 2 rating prevents our airlines from increasing their flights to the US or even changing the type of aircrafts our carriers use. Our downgrade also prevents us from getting more European tourists and our airlines from flying to Europe.
I understand that P-Noy has given the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) up to the end of the year to secure this upgrade. We are not holding our breath, however. The new charter for the authority supposedly grants it greater administrative autonomy, allowing it to hire the qualified experts and to change procedures to meet the regulatory standards sought by the FAA. But I understand its personnel are basically the same old incompetent people who caused our downgrade to begin with. The new law should have made it possible to fire everybody and start fresh. Now it seems we still have the same handicap of incompetent staff that may even have established rackets within the agency. We still have check pilots who are retired air force people who are not qualified to fly the planes they are supposed to be check pilots for.
The P-Noy administration may use as an excuse the time it took them to get rid of Ate Glue’s midnight appointee as CAAP head. But I hear from private sector sources dealing with CAAP that P-Noy didn’t do better. The new man he appointed to head CAAP, those in the know tell me, can hardly be described as someone who is up to the daunting challenge. His main credential, I am told, is being the personal pilot of P-Noy and his family in the past.
But things are supposedly moving… whether it is fast enough to matter is another question. A foreign consultant who is said to have helped some other countries successfully deal with a similar downgrade has been hired and is helping work through the requirements. I am also told that newly installed DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas has already met with Tourism Secretary Bertie Lim and both are cognizant of the urgency of getting the FAA credentials.
The urgency of the situation cannot be overemphasized. Because of the downgrade, Philippine Airlines is not allowed to increase its flights from the current 33 frequencies per week. PAL ordered 6 new B777 (370 seats) and delivery started in 2009. PAL could have theoretically deployed these fuel efficient planes to the US, where the Philippine carriers are allowed to fly to 28 points. The Category 2 downgrade prevents PAL from using these brand new airplanes even if these were all manufactured by an American company. The US has also issued an advisory warning US citizens in the Philippines to refrain from using Philippine-based carriers effective since 2008.
The European Union also banned Philippine registered carriers from European skies. The Europeans also warned EU citizens to refrain from using Philippine-based carriers effective from April 1, 2010. This ban caused mass cancellations of European tour groups and is still causing us problems in getting more European tourists to come because the ban prevents the tourists from getting travel insurance that covers domestic flights on Philippine carriers.
The failure of the Arroyo administration to address this problem, despite numerous press releases of deadlines Ms. Arroyo supposedly set, is a serious dereliction of their duty. As the Philippine Travel and Tours Association (PTTA) noted, “the downgrade cast a negative image of the country as an unsafe destination with untrustworthy facilities and infrastructure.” How can we have a tourism promotion campaign if we are officially tagged as unsafe by our current principal markets?
While this unfortunate observation about government aviation facilities and infrastructure may be partly true, in fairness to our airlines, they have been observing international safety standards. Our international pilots, for instance, are licensed by the US FAA and the aircrafts of our airlines are maintained by internationally respected entities like Lufthansa for PAL in a facility at NAIA and Singapore Airlines for Cebu Pacific in a facility in Clark.
PTTA has pointed out that the overall share of US arrivals in total Philippines arrivals between 2007 and 2010 has declined. For the PTTA, however, “the real impact of the FAA downgrading and EU ban is the opportunity cost of forgone traffic that could have been attracted had the downgrading and EU ban not occurred.” One of the biggest opportunity loss is the failure of PAL to deploy its new more fuel efficient B777 fleet to the US and fly to new cities in the US. Cebu Pacific also cannot start a trans-Pacific route with the downgrade in effect.
The FAA downgrade likewise prevents Philippine carriers with smaller aircraft to tap US territories such as Guam. Lance Gokongwei once told me he would have wanted Cebu Pacific to fly to Guam which is within the range of their A320 fleet. The EU blacklisting also prevents Philippine carriers from flying to Europe.
Then there is this other homework… the matter of visas to nationals of the two most important growth markets for travel and tourism in our region: China and India. For some shortsighted reasons, the DFA is said to be reluctant to lift visa requirements because visa fees are a good source of income for our consulates and embassies abroad. The Immigration Bureau is concerned about enforcement capability once the more nationals from these presently restricted nationals come. They should all see the big picture: the benefits expanded tourism will bring to our country.
PAL has started direct flights to New Delhi to start tapping this rich market. I understand the direct flights are nearly empty while those that stop at Bangkok have decent load factors until Bangkok. The Indian government is already giving Filipino nationals visas on arrival, thus promoting India as a tourist destination for Filipinos. But we are not taking advantage of the same opportunity for the return flight because of bureaucratic shortsightedness.
Of course there is the matter of congestion at NAIA, the third homework that must be attended to with a lot more urgency and I do not mean just the terminal buildings. More important, I am told by airline officials that there are no more landing/take off slots to be had at NAIA, which means our ability to increase our visitor numbers is now severely curtailed. We can and we should redirect them to Clark and other open skies airports but we aren’t doing much in that area too.
One last issue --- the common carriers tax is supposedly an irritant with the foreign carriers operating here. The DOF and the BIR have just reiterated the justification for retaining the tax in some form or another. Sources tell me that Bertie is unable to convince Secretary Purisima to see the situation his way… removing the tax will increase flights, bring in more tourists who will spend more and thus the BIR can collect more taxes from the tourism sector.
In a letter to Secretary Purisima, the airlines pointed out that because the tax discriminates against foreign airlines, it negates the potential benefits to the tourism industry of the liberal aviation policies of the Aquino administration. In the meantime, KLM, the only European airline operating a direct flight from Manila to Europe is reportedly seriously considering bypassing us too in exasperation.
As the private tourism sector emphasized to me, we need everyone working in one direction and it is not just the Tourism Secretary’s fault we are getting nowhere. As I have been saying… first things first… let us do our homework and remove the hindrances to a thriving tourism sector before anyone talks marketing on television or international road shows.
Guns vs women
Dr. Ernie E contributed these three top reasons why a lot of men prefer guns over women.
You can trade an old 44 for a new 22.
If you admire a friend’s gun and tell him so, he will probably let you try it out a few times.
You can buy a silencer for a gun.
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