Professional Documents
Culture Documents
INVESTMENTS OPPORTUNITIES
INTRODUCTION
Before proceeding, I would like to thank our partners here in the United
Kingdom. This Business Forum on Tourism Investments would not have
been possible without the support of the Philippine Trade and
Investment Center, the commercial section of the Philippine Embassy in
London. Equally important is the assistance extended by Berwin
Leighton and Paisner. BLP has gone out of its way to help the
Philippines by hosting us today in this magnificent building and
auditorium. To the senior officers and partners, please accept my
heartfelt thanks.
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Finally, I wish to give special recognition to a woman who has given us
the motivation to push our tourism investments agenda forward in the
UK. To Katrina Panlilio-Craig of Hotel-in-a-Box, the Department of
Tourism is deeply grateful for your dedication and the service you have
so generously given.
Six months ago, Benigno S. Aquino III was elected president. One of
the cornerstones of his economic program is tourism, as a key industry
that creates jobs and reduces poverty.
Let me say at the outset that our objective is to double tourist arrivals
from the current base of three million visitors in 2009 to six million in
2016. Our latest statistics reveal that as of July 2010, the arrivals have
increased by 14% over the same period in 2009. Should this pace
continue, we can forecast arrivals to be as much as 3.4 million visitors
by year’s end.
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EIGHT BASIC REASONS TO CHOOSE THE PHILIPPINES
3. A new civil aviation policy regime that will lead to greater air
access
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7. The popular use of the English language as the medium for
communications, commerce and education; and
OPEN SKIES
Vietnam started their tourism 20 years later than us yet their 4 million
arrivals are already higher than ours. I will set modesty aside and say
that our natural endowments and infrastructure are at par or better than
Vietnam’s. We have a language facility that should have served us
better. I submit that the main difference is that they allowed foreign
carriers to bring in tourists without demanding reciprocity for their own
carriers.
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Philippines. Clearly Vietnam does not depend on the growth of its flag
carrier to grow their tourism.
Bali grew from 30,000 tourists to 3.3 million after pocket open skies was
declared. Siem Reap went from nothing to over a million carried mostly
by non-Cambodian airlines.
The lessons of Bali, Siem Reap and Vietnam are very clear.
Protectionism has hurt us.
INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
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A political economist pundit has said that for too long, our infrastructure
program has suffered from the “divided by ‘n’ syndrome”, where “n” is
the number of legislators. As a result, our infrastructure budgets that
should have been spent on priority tourism destinations, were instead
spent on other less essential infrastructure projects.
Among the top ten PPP projects are 4 airports in the high priority tourism
destinations. These names may not be familiar to you – Palawan,
Bohol, Legaspi/Daraga and Cagayan de Oro – but they are the
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emerging destinations, the new Maldives, the new Bali, the new Phuket.
TOURISM INVESTMENTS
Regional investors have been aware for some time of the potential of the
Philippine tourism product. Approaching saturation in their invested
markets and seeking new destinations, they now view the Philippines as
the next big Southeast Asian destination, notwithstanding our limited
accessibility and underdeveloped infrastructure.
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The law also created an investment promotions agency, the Tourism
Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, to generate new investment
in the tourism sector by granting fiscal and other incentives.
For many years, the Board of Investments and Philippine Export Zone
Authority have been the two agencies responsible for bringing in tourism
investments. Because of the Tourism Act of 2009, investors can also
look to the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (or
TIEZA) as a specialized agency dedicated to the tourism sector. TIEZA
offers several key value propositions to tourism investors.
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Aside from duty free importation of capital equipment, TIEZA offers a six
year income tax holiday, compared to four years for BOI and PEZA. The
tax holiday is extendable by up to 6 more years for substantial
expansions or upgrades in facilities and services. After the income tax
holiday period, the investor has the option to be taxed on gross income.
Also available is a special social responsibility incentive, which will be a
tax credit of up to 50% of expenses on environmental protection,
heritage preservation, or sustainable livelihood programs for host
communities.
TOURIST ATTRACTION
It is NOT THE:
- Sun, sea, sand and San Miguel Beer, although Boracay calls itself
the best beach in the world.
- Nature at its best, although one is able to swim with the world’s
largest mammal – the whale shark, or play with the world’s
smallest primate – the tarsier
- Adventure, although our Bicol Region is the site for television’s
popular Survivor series, Amazing Race, etc.
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- Culture – where West was assimilated into East emerged the only
Latin country in Asia
- Shopping in the region’s largest malls or tightest flea markets.
All nationalities but one feel the best attraction of the Philippines is the
people. We have the world’s warmest welcome. We laugh a lot; we can
even make jokes of our own misfortunes. Filipinos will always offer to
their meal, even to strangers. And of course, we can all carry a tune.
MEDICAL TRAVEL
It is not surprising that our doctors and nurses are among the country’s
most successful overseas workers, and here in the United Kingdom,
many of those who work in the National Health Service are well-trained
Filipino medical practitioners. Our care-givers are known for the Filipino
brand of “tender loving care” and genuine compassion.
We now have some of the world’s best but affordable spa retreats and
wellness resorts. A number of these have entered into joint venture with
foreign investors, including a popular resort that offers holistic and
alternative treatment in a lush tropical farm setting. And these are all
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complemented with eco-tours, adventure tours, and cultural tours.
RETIREMENT
The world is graying. One futuristic projection shows that by 2050, 25%
of the world’s population will be over 65 years old. Whether national
social security systems will be able to care for the aged is already a
major concern of developed economies.
- Warm weather
- Trained care-givers with the Filipino touch
- English language facility
- Religious tolerance
- World class medical/health services
- Telecommunications access.
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CONCLUSION
Today the country is led by the “son of People Power.” The changes he
seeks are social and economic. He hopes to free many in the bottom of
the pyramid from the bondage of poverty. He is working to free people
engaged in business from the shackles of bad governance so they can
bring greater prosperity to the land.
We invite you, our friends and supporters in the UK, to contribute to that
cause:
Do come to the Philippines. You will love it. I wish you… MABUHAY!
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