TUTUTUKAN ng Department of Tourism (DOT) ang pagpapaunlad sa ilang airport at seaport sa bansa sa layong makapanghikayat pa ng mas maraming dayuhang turista na bumisita sa Pilipinas.
Binigyang-diin ni Tourism Sec. Christina Garcia-Frasco ang kahalagahan na pagkakaroon ng maayos na ‘first impression’ sa mga nasabing pasilidad.
“Well our gateways and airports, seaports are the first impression that our tourists have and therefore it’s very important to be able to make a good first impression and to encourage our tourists not just to come to the Philippines once, but to keep going again and again,” pahayag ni Frasco.
Ani Frasco, itatampok sa mga aayusin at papagandahin na airport at seaport ang mga disenyo at mga muwebles na tatak Pinoy.
“We will place a tacit manifestation of the FIlipino identity and the Filipino brand so what you can expect are elements of our culture such as solihiya panels, Filipino made furniture, weaves, via our various pride all over the country. As well as incorporation of greenery and plants,” ayon kay Frasco.
Nagpahayag naman si Pangulong Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. ng kaniyang pagsuporta sa mga plano ng DOT.
Sa kaniyang mensahe sa ginanap na Philippine Tourism Industry Convergence Reception nitong Lunes, dapat aniya ay may maayos na access sa mga tourist destination ng bansa.
“We consider immediately necessary, we must improve the accessibility of all of these places, to have direct access to smaller airports, not necessarily the big airports of Manila, of Cebu, of CDO, of GenSan. And furthermore that we must provide infrastructure to develop that access, the infrastructure to develop that area,” pahayag ni Pangulong Bongbong Marcos.
Binigyang-diin ni Pangulong Marcos na ang turismo ay isang ‘economic driver’ at nagdudulot ng maraming trabaho sa ating mga kababayan.
“We must immediately do all that we can to make sure that this asset that PH has must be used to bring jobs to people, good jobs to people, to bring visitors to our country,” ayon sa Pangulo.
Sa ngayon, nasa panglima o pang-anim na puwesto ang Pilipinas sa dami ng tourist arrivals sa Southeast Asia.
Ayon kay Frasco, ang bansa ay naungusan na ng bandang Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore at Vietnam.
“We’re still in the race to recovery and we’re doing everything that we can to be able to be at par with our ASEAN neighbors that rank far higher than us and studying the enabling mechanisms for improving our tourism position,” pahayag ni Frasco.
Sa huling datos ng DOT, nakapagtala ang Pilipinas ng higit 1.77 milyong foreign visitor arrivals.
Mas mataas ang naturang bilang sa target ng DOT na 1.7 million na turista para sa 2022.
