Briefs to TTCI

Paolo Abellanosa, 08B

Few souls in this college and university are aware that something of a Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report exists in the world, and probably less than half of this handful has had the chance of reading the more-than 200-page essay of the World Economic Forum. What most of us don’t know about this report is that it ranks our country as 86^th in competitiveness (from over 133 nations); nose-diving five places from 81^st in 2008 (from over 130 nations). It’s like the Indonesian, Namibian, Honduran, Trinidadian, and Syrian injected themselves in the line leaving the Filipino further from prerog (while most of us will ask where in the world Namibia is). Nonetheless, without the intention of saving this government from fault, the intensity of the report is not with the ranking. Yes, doubtlessly the Philippines has achieved a negative climb, but let us stick with the cliché that there’s always a rainbow after the rain.

I start with a little background of the legendary T&T Competitiveness Index. Like every report and data-gathering, TTCI is a human being that has evolved from other species of experiences. It has its deoxyribonucleic acid, or unique code, aimed at measuring “the factors and policies that make it attractive to develop travel and tourism sector in different countries”.

Now, this TTCI has 14 body parts. These are called pillars of T&T competitiveness, and they are grouped into three systems of bare bones, or subindexes, whose broad scope drives travel and tourism. The first subindex is the T&T regulatory framework composed of the pillars policy and regulations, environmental sustainability, safety and security, health and hygiene, and prioritization of travel and tourism. Pillars air transport infrastructure, ground transport infrastructure, tourism infrastructure, information and communications technology infrastructure, and price competitiveness in the T&T industry belong to the T&T business environment and infrastructure subindex, while the subindex T&T human, cultural, and natural resources has the pillars human resources, affinity for travel and tourism, natural resources, and cultural resources.

These three frameworks summarize the three essential components of T&T. From Tour 120, we have learned that accommodation, transportation, attraction, etc. are the components of tourism. In a wider sense, the World Economic Forum suggests that there are basically three—regulation; business and infrastructural; and human, cultural, and natural resources—all of which determine the effectiveness of T&T development in a given area.

From these 14 pillars and three subindexes, the survey was done. The hard data were retrieved from international organizations such as the International Air Transport Association, the UN World Tourism Organization, and the World Travel and Tourism Council, while insight papers and feedbacks were obtained from companies that range from Airbus to Rolls-Royce, from Emirates Group to British Airways.

What sets aside this survey from common surveys is its sample population. You won’t virtually find yourself being interviewed for raw data, unless ten years from now you are to be the country manager of a major airline company or international hotel chain.

Why, you may ask, should the World Economic Forum narrow down its target population to executives and business leaders of the global community? Why disregard the perception of common citizens to their own country’s and other place’s attractiveness in T&T?

Its answer is because these men and women are the individuals that make the investment decisions. Whether they invest in infrastructural expansion or participate in capital flight due to political instability, the impact they give to economy is significant enough for their opinion (their opinion almost alone, unfortunately, in this case) to be considered.

The implication with this kind of survey is clear. Not being the hypersensitive activists who would argue that this tolerates social stratification, we may see that the point of the survey is to really know where industry-leaders are leaning to. From here we can be aware of the characteristics of the specific destination in a spectrum of different factors.

Switzerland, Austria, and Germany are the front-liners for 2009 (the same order in 2008). France, the country that many of us look up to in the industry, comes in fourth (from 10^th in 2008), followed by Canada (from 9^th), Spain (from 5^th), Sweden (from 8^th), United States (from 7^th), Australia (from 4^th), and Singapore (from 16^th). The United Kingdom, like the Philippines, has plummeted 5-notches from 6^th in 2008 to 11^th.

The report explains what is not wrong with Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. The three excels in the number of World Heritage sites—culturally and historically significant areas declared by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee for preservation. In fact, Germany has 32 (the Philippines has 5). Moreover, these countries are host to numerous international fairs, conventions, forums, and exhibitions. The report claims Germany to have a 2005-2007 average of 395.7 international fairs and exhibitions annually, with Austria having 201.0 and Switzerland 177.0 (the Philippines has 31.3).

They have very high levels of security (Switzerland is 8^th and Austria is 6^th) and sophisticated transportation infrastructures both for ground and air. Additionally, there are clear policies and priority for travel and tourism.

Within the Southeast Asian region, our country is proudly at 16^th place. Australia is stubbornly at 1^st place with Malaysia 7^th and Thailand 8^th. The report highlights our country’s openness to tourists. We are leveled 3^rd in the rank for the fewest requirements for VISA (although Malaysia is ranked first) and 16^th in price competitiveness. Nonetheless, the Forum notes that there is a need to improve protection on property rights and transparency on government policymaking, and to lessen the difficulty in starting up a business.

This kind of ranking may be associated with the wrong kind of impression. If one were to hear about our country lunging five notches from 81^st, that person might think that the Philippines had been careless with a T&T variable or the quality of the industry here is near the worst.

In a nutshell, there is little significance with our present rank. It ambiguously denotes either a decline or stagnation, or even an increase with a variable that, caused by comparison of growth rates of other areas, has become a minor adjustment.

Like the one I indicated in my first paragraph, the essence of this report is in the criteria. In a study by IATA published in Chapter I of the 2009 report, there is a proven strong relationship between the total number of passengers arriving at and departing from a given country and the tourism competitiveness factors of TTCI. Authors Selim Ach and Brian Pearce, concluded that improving the pillars would likely improve tourist arrivals.

The tourism department and T&T authorities can utilize these data of the World Economic Forum to evaluate the efficiency of their programs and strategies. And if they deemed these very useful, they may come up with a better set of schemes, something that is cost-effective, well-organized, and long-term.