By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo / Special to the BusinessMirror
MANILA is a laggard in terms of tourism potential and readiness for growth.
A new report published by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and its partner JLL, titled “Destination 2030: Global Cities Readiness for Tourism Growth,” placed the Philippines capital in the “Dawning Developers” category. These are “cities [that] tend to have emerging tourism infrastructure, perhaps having placed less emphasis historically on their travel and tourism sector. To date, these cities have experienced gradual tourism growth, but have lower levels of concentration. Such destinations often have a clean slate in planning long term tourism development with many opportunities ahead.” Others in the category are New Delhi and Riyadh.
Dawning Developers are the lowest ranked among the tourism growth readiness categories. The others, in terms of tourism potential, are: Emerging Performers like Dubrovnik and Buenos Aires, Balanced Dynamics (Auckland, New Zealand); Mature Performers (Berlin, Miami, Hong Kong); with Managing Momentum as the highest category (Amsterdam, London, Las Vegas). Sixty-three cities were selected for this report.
JLL used 75 indicators to analyze a city’s readiness for sustainable tourism, which were integrated within eight pillars, namely, scale, concentration, leisure, business, environmental readiness, urban readiness, safety and security; and policy prioritization.
The report hopes that with this assessment, “city governments and tourism bodies can better understand, respond to, and plan for the future, to ultimately enhance overall tourism readiness.”
Gov’t, private sector collab
The new report was discussed in “Destination 2030: Redefining Impactful Destinations” by a panel of global leaders, at the recent 21st Global Summit of the WTTC in Manila.
The panelists agreed that sustainability is important, but that this should also go beyond environmental readiness to make a destination competitive in the long-run.
“There are other elements to sustainability other than the environment,” said Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority Chief Executive Officer Raki Phillips. “There’s cultural sustainability, economic sustainability. It’s so important that the actions that create sustainability also benefit the community,” he added.
For her part, Tourism Promotions Board COO Ma. Anthonette Velasco-Allones said, “The way forward for sustainability is one of convergence.” She highlighted the importance of collaboration between government and the private sector for destinations to grow. For instance, she said the closure of Boracay Island for six months in 2018, benefited not just its tourism stakeholders, but also its local communities.
Beyond sustainability, destinations must also achieve balance with proper planning and the right policies that should be clearly understood by and benefit the entire tourism ecosystem. JLL Hotels and Hospitality Global CEO Gilda Perez-Alvarado said, “It’s really all about balance at the end of the day, and quality of destination. The world is reopening and all of us are competing for that share of the wallet and want to make sure that tourists are coming. But we also want to make sure that the citizens who live in that town are happy to welcome those tourists.”
She noted, “If we think about a long-term roadmap to 2030, we have to think of the benefit for all the stakeholders. Otherwise, why are they going to participate? Why are they going to be supportive?”
This is why tourism should be viewed more than just as a leisure endeavor, since it plays a key role in maintaining and improving the socioeconomic ecosystem, as emphasized by Barcelona City Councilor Xavier Marce.
With the release of Destination 2030 as a guide, cities are encouraged to pivot and take advantage of the opportunities to become future-proof.
“If we carry on with sustainability initiatives in a way that addresses the 2030 development goals set out for us, then I think we’re getting there and it should be a good journey,” said Allones.
Image credits: TPB