By JACKY LYNNE A. OIGA
MANILA, Philippines — Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. Tuesday encouraged the Filipinos not to let the challenges get them down and instead bring forth what is good about the Philippines.
“Our negative image is a lot more famous than the positive so we languish at the bottom of the list, of worst airports, of worst places to be. The Department of Tourism (DoT) is currently putting together a new country image campaign that will serve to boost our image with two very important targets: foreigners and Filipinos,” Jimenez said during his talk at the Public Relations Institute Seminar.
On the issue of insurgencies in Basilan, Zamboanga Sibugay, and Lanao del Norte and Italy’s travel ban to the Philippines after the recent murder of Italian priest Fr. Faustino Tentorio in North Cotabato affecting tourist arrivals in the country, Jimenez said it will depend on what perspective people will take.
“In terms of domestic tourism, it has little effect. In fact, I was in Zamboanga City the day after the bombing, and I arrived in to city where people are walking around as if to tell the bombers, go scare someone else,” Jimenez said.
He reiterated that while there will always be people who will be afraid of even a firecracker, there are more people who are just inclined to travel addressing the 23 million domestic tourists that traveled around the country last year.
“When it comes to travel bans,” Jimenez said. “DoT does not do preparations for travel bans other than ensure the tourists that the Philippines is in fact one of the most enjoyable places in the world.”
Jimenez also said the people should not worry about the infrastructures because the new National Tourism Development plan will prioritize transportation infrastructures to promote seamless travel.
“Investment incentive in lieu of development in tourism enterprise zones and capacity building programs as we speak will be undertaken for the LGUs for planning, promotion, regulation, and community based-project,” Jimenez explained.
He said that the DoT is taking care of the human resources development agenda which will ensure that graduates from universities have appropriate skills. And that a culture of tourism is being built by giving the destinations priority as far as corporate incentive programs and university studies.
All of these efforts are part of DoT’s task of building an atmosphere of encouragement the people need so badly.
“With all that is happening around us we forgot to do something important, we forgot to speak well about our country, that we need positive building to feed our positive image. We forgot that Filipinos thrive better in an atmosphere
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