Unnecessary warning

Philippine Daily Inquirer Asia News Network Manila

At the summit meeting of the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Phnom Penh (last week), terrorism and tourism were almost always mentioned in the same breath.

Concerned over the fall in tourist arrivals, the leaders decried the efforts of the United States and many other Western countries to discourage their nationals from visiting the region on account of terrorist threats.

As a result, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said, tourism was declining at a time when "ASEAN countries are more than ever working together to protect our tourist destinations from terrorist attacks.''

It now appears that Arroyo was wrong -- at least partially and rather happily so. According to the Bureau of Immigration, more foreigners have been coming to the country during the first 10 months of the year than last year.

From January to October, the bureau counted 1,578,198 foreign arrivals compared with 1,512,145 the previous year, a modest increase of 4.36 percent. Interestingly the number of foreign visitors shot up to 132,702 in October this year, compared to only 97,081 during the same month last year.

And the figures are not even all in yet, according to Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon. The numbers for this year include only those who arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, so there should be a little bit more when the reports of arrivals come in from the country's three other international airports in Laoag, Cebu and Davao.

How was the country able to buck the region-wide slump in visitor arrivals that everyone in the tourism industry has been complaining about? Ever cheerleader Gordon said the increase showed the "resiliency" of the country's tourism industry in the face of terrorism. He said the Philippines continued to be "one of the safest tourist destinations in the world."

Gordon must be joking or he is talking about a different country. In October alone, 20 people were killed in nine bombing incidents that occurred in places as varied as Zamboanga City and Kidapawan, both in Mindanao, Pampanga, La Union and Metro Manila.

Going back a few months, scores of Filipinos and foreigners have been abducted from just about anywhere, including the pricey Dos Palmas resort in Palawan.

Before that kidnapping crisis was over, two Americans had been killed -- one by beheading at the hands of his Abu Sayyaf abductors and the other in the crossfire during the rescue of the remaining hostages. In the last few weeks, all the police and military could talk about was the possibility of more terrorist attacks, especially in crowded places, and the local cells of international terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda and Jamaah Islamiyah.

Filipinos, to their credit, may not have allowed themselves to be paralyzed by fear in the face of all this violence. But to foreigners such incidents hardly make the country an attractive destination, unless of course they are themselves up to no good, like the few al-Qaeda operatives who have been caught here.

Gordon has noted that despite the negative advisories, Japanese, Korean and Chinese tourists continue to visit the Philippines. He and other tourism officials should hasten to find out why.

Unless the immigration data are wrong or these Asian tourists have a fascination for danger, it looks curious that they would be coming in greater numbers to our neck of the woods now. Their reasons could very well be the key to the survival, if not the progress of the industry.

In the meantime, it's futile to try to persuade the United States and other Western governments to take back their advisories advising their citizens against making trips to the Philippines at this time.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher has explained that his government has the responsibility to warn Americans about potential dangers they might face when they come here. Urging caution is the least any government should do when it perceives danger to its citizens.

And when the Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Gen. Benjamin Defensor, describes the terrorist threat in our part of the world as "at a heightened stage" and the government succeeds in having 10,000 communist guerrillas of the New People's Army classified as a terrorist organization, the issuance of a travel advisory by any foreign government becomes unnecessary.