Marcos approves five-year National Tourism Development Plan
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved the five-year National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP), tourism officials announced on Tuesday.
During the briefing in the Palace, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco expressed her gratitude to Marcos for prioritizing tourism development.
"We’re very grateful to our president for articulating very early on in his administration his priority for tourism development, and this has resulted in a convergence among government agencies as far as giving full support to the development of the industry recognizing the losses that have ensued as a result of the pandemic and various calamities," she said.
"We are very thankful to President Marcos for approving the NTDP, and we very much are looking forward to instituting all of the programs and plans under his administration all towards the goal of ensuring that our fellow Filipinos are able to enjoy gainful employment and livelihood as a result of the success of the tourism industry, and to position the Philippines in a more primary role in the ASEAN and the world," she added.
Frasco said the "NTDP lays down the seven objectives of the Department of Tourism that focus on the essential pillars of development which, in our view, would be able to give the Philippines a fighting chance at becoming a tourism powerhouse."
"These objectives involve not simply the promotion of the Philippines which we will continue domestically and internationally, but also more importantly, addressing the essential issues of tourism development including the development of infrastructure, connectivity, as well as digitalization, the equalization of tourism development and promotion, the enhancement of the overall tourist experience, as well as the strengthening of tourism governance," she said.
As part of its effort to support tourism development in the country, Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan Uy said the agency will provide free internet connectivity in 94 tourism destinations.
"Secretary Frasco provided us initially with the list of about 94 tourist destinations that have connectivity challenges. So with that list, in a matter of a few months, we’ve already put into the program that for the first phase, we will be able to deploy about 46 out of the 94 destinations that will be lighted with free internet connectivity," he said.
"For the first 46 it will be already out by next quarter. So, if we’re able to deploy that in ? we signed the MOA I think three months ago, yes, three months ago, so in six months we will be able to deploy the first half; so, second half most likely by end of the year we’ll have the full 100% coverage," he added.
Uy said the first phase will cover some of the very major sites of tourism including "Baguio, Palawan, Boracay, Cebu, and several other tourism destinations identified as a priority."
Aside from internet connectivity, Uy said the "DICT is also addressing some of the administrative blocks that can occur with respect to pushing our tourism agenda, one of which is the visa issues."
"Together with the Department of Tourism, with the Bureau of Immigration, with the Department of Foreign Affairs, DICT is coming in to help deploy an e-visa system. And we’re also cooperating with all of these agencies and looking at private partners in order to provide these platforms in order to deploy the e-visa systems," he said.
"This will greatly increase the capacity; our estimate internally is it will increase the capacity by tenfold, multiple of ten. So from, let’s say from 600 to 6,000, let’s say if these are in the areas where there are challenges with respect to issuance of those e-visas," said Uy.
"This is just an initial stage and we will continue to look for ways of improving the digitalization of our infrastructure, as well as connectivity, to support all the different departments of the government," he added. Robina Asido/DMS
