DAVAO CITY, 16 April — A steady improvement in the Philippine tourism industry could result in more jobs and lessers Filipinos being forced to leave their families to work abroad.
Officials of the Department of Tourism (DOT) said the income from the industry, pegged at $6.5 billion last year, is roughly equivalent to the dollars remitted each year by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) through banks.
Doubling the industry’s income could only mean more jobs generated, they said.
The department cited the case of Portugal which used to send thousands of workers to other European countries to prop up its eonomy.
The overseas employment program stopped when the influx of tourists to Portugal increased and tourism became a standard contributor to national growth.
Another case is Thailand, whose overseas employment has been minimized since the country became a favorite tourist destination, with some 10 million tourists a year.
Officials said the opening of more job opportunities at home is the only way to minimize the number of OFWs, many of whom are exposed to exploitation.
They were referring to cases of Filipino women being raped by their employers, domestics being abused physically and mentally, and Filipino men being framed for various reasons.
“Instead of our countrymen going abroad to earn dollars from foreigners, we should develop our tourism industry so that foreigners will be the ones to come to us,” Secretary Richard Gordon said.
Gordon also noted that recent studies showing an increasing disintegration of Filipino families, especially among OFWs.
Many teen-agers with parents working abroad are targets of peer pressure and are prone to drug addiction and other bad influences for lack of parental supervision, he noted.
The DOT has launched an all-out campaign to promote Philippine tourism abroad. “Improved tourism heralds an improved economy. An economic boom means jobs for Filipinos. So we must pitch in to achieve these goals,” he said.
It is believed many OFWs and their families own properties in the provinces that could be converted into a tourist attraction. Last year, a group of OFWs in Jeddah who participated in the livelihood seminar conducted by the OFW Cooperative Council , made a feasibility on eco-tourism village in Palawan.
The project is highly feasible and timely with the project of the DOT. A lot of untapped places are yet to be seen by both local and foreign tourists.
