Here’s something for the Department of Tourism to mull over. In 2009, it definitely wasn’t fun in the Philippines (the DOT recently adopted "It's more fun in the Philippines" as the tourism slogan; in 2009, it was Wow! Philippines): the National Statistics Office, in a report, said that during that year, more than 500 accommodations and establishments catering to tourists and guests did not offer essential services for them.
Data showed that 548 of the 1,475 “accommodation establishments” —hotels, motels, pension houses —included in the survey did not offer services such as laundry, airport transfers, spa/massage therapy services, tour services, medical services, cultural and recreational shows, and other services to tourists and guests.
The report was lifted from the results of the first-ever 2009 Survey of Tourism Establishments in the Philippines (STEP). The survey collected information on the available supply of tourism goods, products and services that are needed in the compilation of the Philippine Tourism Satellite Account (PTSA).
“This was a nationwide survey of establishments in the formal sector engaged in ‘tourism characteristic industries’ only as defined by the Philippine Tourism Statistical Classification System [PTSCS]. Tourism characteristic products are goods and services, which would cease to exist in meaningful quantity or those for which the level of consumption would be significantly reduced in the absence of visitors,” the NSO said.
Among those the 684 establishments that did offer guest services, the most common were laundry and dry cleaning, followed by airport transfers, which were offered by 419 establishments.
The NSO also said 380 establishments nationwide offered spa/massage services; 199 offered tour services; 134, valet parking; 133, medical services; 53, cultural and recreational shows; and 34, offered “other” guest services.
In the National Capital Region (NCR), which accounts for almost 20 percent of all accommodation establishments in the country, the NSO said laundry/dry cleaning was the top service offered by 112 establishments, followed by spa/massage therapy services with 96 establishments. The least services offered in establishments in NCR were cultural and recreational shows; only two offered them that year.
Also, 174 of these establishments did not have facilities like restaurants/coffee shops, parking spaces, wireless Internet, electronic payment schemes, transport facilities, online reservation, specialty shops, sports/recreation facilities, foreign-exchange counter.
Among those that did offer other services, the most common were restaurants/coffee shops (1,003 establishments), parking space (905) and wireless Internet (753).
Other facilities, such as electronic payment schemes were offered by 546 establishments; transport facilities (522 establishments); online reservation, (472) specialty shops (283); sports/recreation facilities (267); foreign-exchange counter (154); other facilities (46).
“For the front runner regions; NCR, Region VII and Region VI, restaurants/coffee shops offered by hotels and motels were the most available facilities. The least available facilities were sports/recreation/amusement for NCR with 34 or 11.7 percent and foreign- exchange counters for both Region VI with 16 or 8.5 percent and Region VII with 34 establishments or 18.1 percent,” the NSO report said.
Among the accommodation establishments, only149 or 10.1 percent were accredited by the Department of Tourism (DOT). Region VII recorded the highest DOT accreditation with 30 establishments or 16 percent followed by NCR with 36 or 12.41 percent and Region VI with 13 or 6.9 percent.
A total of 292 or 19.8 percent planned to expand and 469 or 31.8 percent of these accommodation establishments plan to renovate within the next five years, the survey showed.
For the regions that planned to expand in the next five years the top regions were Region I-A with 37 or 26.4 percent, followed by Region VI and Region VII both with 32 or 17 percent and NCR with 31 or 10.7 percent.
In terms of renovations, the top regions were NCR with 64 or 22.1 percent; Region VII with 61 or 32.4 percent; Region IV-A and Region VI, with 38.6 percent and 28.7 percent respectively.
There are 290 or 19.7 percent of accommodation establishments in NCR. Western Visayas (Region VI) and Central Visayas (Region VII) are tied in second place with 188 or 12.7 percent followed by Calabarzon with 140 or 9.5 percent. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao had the least number of accommodation establishments—only three or 0.2 percent of the total.
