THE Department of Tourism (DOT) has unveiled a crisis-management program that would help the tourism industry cope and respond to businesses and tourists’ concerns during periods of instability, such as national disasters and political developments.
The Puksa Crisis Management Process Flow will become a continuing cycle of establishing systems and procedures to be used in combatting risk factors identified as Peste, which stands for political turmoil, economic instabilities, social disturbances, technological attacks and environmental hazards, according to a DOT news statement.
The program was revealed at the end of the Tourism Crisis Management Symposium held last week with DOT’s multisectoral partners, including representatives from the Philippine National Police, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, Department of Interior and Local Government, Philippine Red Cross, other government agencies and tourism-industry associations.
With the construction of this workflow, the tourism industry is prepared to overcome challenges and ensure its resilience in the years to come, Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said. “The DOT continues to face challenges of uplifting tourism amid perceived security and safety problems. Another factor is the perception of the Philippines as the center of natural calamities, such as typhoons, flash floods and earthquakes,” she explained.
Addressing these issues, she stressed, is imperative and thus a shared responsibility among stakeholders in order to guarantee safety and security throughout the country.
For her part, Undersecretary for Tourism Regulation, Coordination and Resource Generation Alma Rita R. Jimenez also encouraged stakeholders to be involved by learning the ways of prevention, management and mitigation in the events of crises.
Since the tourism industry banks on the economic impact of the marketed destinations, it is vital to identify hazards and risks and consider their implications on tourism facilities and the economic sector in general.
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Jimenez explained that Puksa first establishes the need for crisis-management response for all tourism sectors and, second, lists down the roles of industry stakeholders, partner government agencies and non-governmental organizations in dealing with a specific crisis. “They all have a role in disaster or crisis management, so in that sense, the approach is multisectoral, but the lead convenor is still the DOT. [Puksa] is a series of interventions to respond to specific crisis, put together to create a crisis protocol.”
Puksa answers for instance, which agencies or industry associations are supposed to track the whereabouts of foreign and domestic tourists, or in a pandemic, what is the role of the Department of Health. She added that even media has a role in communicating the extent of the disasters, who or what areas are affected by the crisis, etc.
She added that partners and industry stakeholders in the regions will be consulted “which will concretize the [crisis management] process.” By next year, she said the DOT will publish a “crisis management manual,” and will include concrete steps to be taken by each region in response to specific events. “For instance it will identify which areas are more prone to typhoons, so the disaster response will be different in region 8 [Eastern Visayas] compared to say, the NCR [National Capital Region or Metro Manila].”
While the DOT failed to release data on the tourism losses from natural disasters or perceived political and security issues, BusinessMirror’s own research showed, for one, an initial loss of P20 million in tourism receipts in Davao City alone, due to the declaration of martial law in Mindanao on May 23. Rajah Tours, for another, estimated it lost P30 million due to canceled bookings by tourists from Japan, when extreme Islamic separatists attacked a town in Bohol. While the total tourism losses from Supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan) was never quantified by the DOT, the Philippines did miss its 5-million arrivals target for 2013.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the direct share of the tourism sector to the local economy was 8.6 percent in 2016. It was up 13.7 percent to P1.24 trillion in terms of tourism direct gross value added, from some P1.09 trillion in 2015.
In a separate interview with DOT Director for Tourism Standards and Regulation Maria Rica Bueno, she explained that on its own, the DOT already has its own crisis-management response system. “Even before this symposium, the regional offices already have a memorandum of understanding with chosen accommodations, which can be used as safe houses for tourists affected by natural calamities or disasters.”
She added that all of DOT’s regional offices are now equipped with satellite phones, so they can easily be contacted by the head office in times of disasters. She noted that equipping regional offices with satphones was a vital lesson learned after Yolanda struck in 2013 and all regular communications systems in affected areas where inoperable.
She also stressed the importance for industry stakeholders to be prepared for crises, such that one of the important requirements in accrediting hotels and resorts, for instance, is the assignment of a safety officer who would oversee the establishment’s crisis-management procedures. The DOT likewise trains stakeholders on how to handle crises, as part of the accreditation process.
1 comment
Dont failed to refuse