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SCMP Reporter

THE man with the difficult task of luring tourists to the Philippines was clearly near wits end early last week.

  A potentially paralysing strike at Philippine Airlines loomed and foreign carriers were asking for work permits for replacement ground staff.

  Separately, angry resort owners at the country's top resort island, Boracay, were pleading for an extension to the temporary closure of a landing strip servicing the island.

  And President Fidel Ramos was pressing for tighter security measures at the problem-plagued Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the wake of tourists being robbed.

  As if this was not enough, power cuts of up to 10 hours in Manila made the office stifling.

    Still, amid the seeming chaos, Tourism Secretary Vicente Carlos was able to summon up an optimistic forecast of the country's tourism industry.

    ''I think we've finally turned the corner in terms of tourism,'' he said.

    There is a mixture of good and bad news for the tourism industry.

    On the positive side, for the first time since the mid-1980s, the number of tourists visiting the Philippines is increasing.

    Recent tourism arrival figures - which reflect annual increases of more than 20 per cent - show the country was able to draw more than one million tourists last year.

  Mr Carlos said he expected about 1.5 million visitors for the whole of this year. The strongest growth is expected from north Asian markets, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

    The Philippines has a long way to go to join the ranks of its fellow members in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which also groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

   Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore all reported more than four million arrivals each in 1989, while Indonesia had about 1.6 million.

   But tourism officials predict that with the implementation of a Tourism Master Plan approved by Mr Ramos last week, arrivals could increase to five million by the year 2010, generating earnings of US$12 billion.

    The bad news is that even with its ambitious plan of action for the years to come, the tourism department faces a precarious future, with legislators threatening to axe the department and cut its already-meagre budget.

    Reflecting the Government's pre-occupation with other priorities, the tourism department receives the third-lowest budget allocation of the 24 departments - even though it employs more than 5,000 people and accounts for significant foreign exchange earnings.

    Last year it received 429 million pesos (about HK$127.41 million) from congress. Additional funds come from a travel tax and a room rate tax, but the department hardly sees any of the proceeds from the latter. ''We have to beg for it,'' Mr Carlos said.

    The other bad news is that a large influx of tourists will be difficult to achieve until the country's infrastructure is improved.

   With daily power blackouts of up to 10 hours, smaller hotels that could not afford costly generators were losing guests, analysts said.

    Another complaint of tour operators is that many prime resorts and hotels have outpriced themselves, which threatens to put the Philippines behind Indonesia in terms of value for money.

    ''We are pricing ourselves out of the market,'' said Howard Blum, manager of Manila-based Blue Horizon Travel and Tours.

   ''The hotels are going haywire with their rates and we are not good value anymore. In other places like Malaysia, the prices are coming down.''     A return of peace and order to the Philippines after years of instability is a big factor behind the increases quoted by Mr Carlos.

  Another reason, especially for the Hongkong market, is that it has recently become easier to fly to the Philippines.

   For example, since Cathay Pacific Airways and Philippine Airlines launched a joint, four-times weekly service to the southern resort province of Cebu, arrivals at the island from Hongkong have shot up more than 100 per cent.

    That number is bound to go up even more now that the Government has allowed the addition of 1,000 more seats this summer on the flights.

   During peak periods, getting a last-minute reservation on a Hongkong-bound flight had been virtually impossible.

    Of the Philippines' major markets, Hongkong arrivals account for 5.75 per cent of visitor traffic.

   Mr Carlos said that figure would be higher if not for the lure of China in Hongkong and if not for the fact that most Hongkong people had already visited the Philippines.

    Foreign carriers have found applying for rights into the Philippines much easier since Mr Carlos assumed the chairmanship of the powerful Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), which used to be controlled by Philippine Airlines.

    Nowadays, CAB meetings usually produce a host of announcements on major air routes opening up.

    In a major shift in approach, the CAB now routinely approves new services where flag carrier Philippine Airlines - long ridiculed for shoddy service and cancelled flights - cannot meet demand.

    ''Until such time Philippine Airlines has the planes we will not allow other carriers to be prevented from flying here,'' Mr Carlos said.

    ''If I have to choose between the national interest and the interests of Philippine Airlines, I'm going to say the national interest comes first.''     The opening of more international gateways and rehabilitation projects at the existing international airports in Cebu and Manila would invite even more services in and out of the country, Mr Carlos said.

    He added that with the perception of the country improving, more international conferences and events were choosing the Philippines as a venue.

   For the first time in 20 years, the Miss Universe pageant is expected to be held in Manila next year, followed in 1995 by the prestigious American Society of Travel Agents, which would bring about 5,000 delegates.

  And the annual conference of the World Jurists' Association in October will bring up to 7,000 lawyers to Manila.



Bright hopes for tourism