DOT to mobilize tourism businesses, LGUs for better data, warmer welcome of visitors

Cities, towns and tourism establishments in communities will be mobilized to help the Department of Tourism (DOT) craft better plans, attract more visitors to their locales and make the guests come back.   "We want to provide a complete picture of the country's tourism sector so we can effectively develop relevant and accurate tourism development plan," Tourism Undersecretary Danilo Cruz said at the sidelines of the National Tourism Statistics Conference in Manila.   The approach the DOT chose to implement is a standardized data collection system involving local communities.   Cruz said there are many data gaps which need to be filled because there are only three major sources of tourism statistics:

• Tourist arrivals data from the Bureau of Immigration as sourced from immigration cards;
• Exit interviews of randomly selected travelers conducted by DOT regional offices;
• Household survey on domestic tourists administered by the National Statistics Office

"We want to standardize the data collection to generate relevant and timely statistics for the tourism sector," said Cruz   Cooperation of tourism establishments and local governments will be crucial in the DOT project, according to the ranking tourism official, to ascertain where tourists go, what they do, how their visit turned out, how much they spent, and why they would want to return if they want to experience more of the country.   But the project has challenges, including how the dynamics of local politics make planning officers of cities and towns co-terminus with the elected officials who appoint them. "We need to maintain consistency in the implementation of data collection from the local government units," Cruz added. — ELR, GMA News