TOURISM IN THE PHILIPPINES: A VIEW FROM THE UNDERSIDE

An Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism and Peace for Life Consultation

2008 OCTOBER 21-23 | QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES

OPENING REMARKS

State and Trends of Global Tourism: Setting the Context

By CAESAR D’MELLO, Executive Director, Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT)

2008 OCTOBER 21

Before I proceed further, let me begin with a word of thanks!

The Manila connection

The Ecumenical Coalition On Tourism (ECOT) was established in 1982 under the umbrella of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) and the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) in 1982. The Workshop that gave rise to ECOT was held in this city in 1980.

The Rev Peter Holden describes the beginnings in a chapter in Transforming Tourism/Re-Forming Tourism, a publicationmarking the 25th anniversary of ECOT. He writes with firsthand knowledge having been the first Executive Secretary of ECOT and one of the pioneers who made tourism an issue for the churches and the wider community. Writing in reference to the Workshop on Third World Tourism in Manila, one which provided the theological and programmatic framework for ECOT, he states:

All those people came with their own experience of tourism; they all came from backgrounds where tourism was touted as (at least one of) the means of economic salvation and a ‘smokeless industry’. Some of them viewed the whole experience from the perspective of tourists, some were workers in hotels and other tourist related industries, some lived in places where traditional and productive land had been taken over for tourism, some were aware that their cultural identity was under threat by tourism, for some their livelihood was at risk, some saw prices of food skyrocket under the pressure of consumer demand boosted by tourism, some were seeing their environment savaged while others saw human dignity assaulted and prostituted by the tourist experience.

In other words, ECOT emerged as a response to the concerns arising from tourism already impacting on communities in Asia and beyond as the big planes such as the 747’s and DC10’s ushered in the era of mass travel. With the Board of ECOT mostly representing the developing world, and grounded in its issues of life and death, need and suffering, inequality and injustice, conflict and reconciliation, from the very beginning ECOT ‘s ‘preferential option’ has been with the communities marginalised and made vulnerable by tourism.

With other regional ecumenical organisations representing the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America joining later, ECOT’s work became global in character.

The Manila Workshop was in 1980. ECOT was established in 1982.

The context of tourism today

Flash-forward a quarter of a century later to 2008. We wrote the following in one of our submissions describing the contemporary scene:

The facts on the ground and the writing on the wall are clear. Tourism is proving to have severe social costs in the developing world and elsewhere. The entire enterprise is top heavy, and ignores the need and protection of host communities. It violates their dignity and their rights. It disregards and ‘commodifies’ their culture. It abuses their women and children and upsets the balance of their natural surroundings. It exploits workers and is based on patterns of global relationships and transactions that are just and inequitable...

And,

…Tourism is a story of the displacement of farmers, fisher communities, indigenous people and other communities to make way for the arrival of a tourism enterprise in the form of a five star resort or hotel, a gold course, or a new amusement park. It is the story of diversion of essential resources such as land, water, and other resources from the local communities to tourism enterprises. It is the story of ecological damage that leaves the local communities the worse off for it. Modern day tourism is the story of abused hospitality, of people misled by unscrupulous interests that are profits driven with a disregard for the social consequences on Third World communities including women, girls and boys forced into prostitution on account of their poverty.

I wish that the depictions above were in stark contrast with each other given the passage of time. Sadly, that is not the case. The concerns identified with the tourism footprint twenty five years ago and today are strikingly similar, but worse today.

The tourism industry has evolved over this time. It has now grown to become a juggernaut whose outlays according to some calculations amount to some ten percent of the global GDP! The growth in the number of leisure travellers is set for a continuous rise, heading in the not too distant future for a figure of around a billion travellers a year. Various forms of tourism have evolved to cater to the desires and demands that define the many niches that exist among consumers. We are familiar with terms such as ‘cruise tourism’, ‘trek tourism, ‘heritage tourism’, ‘slum tourism’, ‘refugee tourism’, ‘spiritual tourism’, ‘gourmet tourism’, ‘debaucherism tourism’, ‘medical tourism’, green tourism’, and so on. Over the last twenty five years, we have been assailed by a growing tourism lexicon that includes jargon such as ‘ecotourism’, ‘sustainable tourism’, ‘pro-poor tourism’, and the like. Often these terms begin with a sound basis, and often, soon enough, are debased as the tourism industry subsumes them for their own advertising and promotion without genuinely altering their offerings in the light of what the terms originally meant.

Has tourism been of benefit?

Has the proliferation of tourism been good for communities? Have the planning and setting up of tourism operations factored in the impact of tourism? With some exceptions here and there, the answer cannot be in the affirmative.

Bodies such as the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the tourism industry, and governments portray investment and development in tourism as an input for development in the third world. Tourism is being seen as a solution to poverty alleviation, and is linked with MDGs, as is indicated by the UNWTO meeting beginning in Cebu tomorrow. The tourism dollar is perceived as a saviour by poor countries. However, often underlying such a simplistic formulation is a belief in variations of the trickle down theory with its promise that the benefits of such investments will eventually reach those at the bottom.

Despite what proponents of such reasoning may claim, the experience in the South however suggests that tourism, in its own way, is as much a factor in the impoverishment of communities as are the acknowledged factors such as war, ethnic conflict, corruption, inequitable distribution of wealth and resources, trade injustice, lack of infrastructure, lack of educational opportunities, and so on. While the elites and a few others benefit, the experience shows that tourism hurts more than benefits local communities. To recap, there are different ways though which Southern communities are disadvantaged, including through:

• The diversion of essential peoples’ resources such as land, water, electricity, other infrastructure to entertain tourists and support hotels, resorts, golf courses, amusement parks, etc
• The loss of revenue to host countries as a result of the financial advantages gained by foreign and domestic business interests through tax concessions and holidays, subsidized land and other costs, import advantages, reduced wages and worker conditions, etc
• The social and economic impact of displacement caused by tourism infrastructure development;
• Ecological damage and loss incurred in developing countries in the course of sustaining a tourism enterprise through inappropriate development;
• Climate change concerns and implications though air travel and destruction of natural resources;
• The social costs through the abuse of women and children, and trafficking;
• The costs entailed in the commercialisation, commodification and denigration of indigenous and local culture;
• The cost to host communities through health hazards, arising from tourist activity involving HIV/AIDS, drugs and narcotics, etc;
• The human rights violations that occur in the name of tourism.

While business interests and certain sectors benefit from the revenue earned through tourism, the question remains whether tourism as configured now benefits the wider community. In fact, computing the benefits and negatives, the balance sheet on tourism would show that the loss suffered by communities would far outweigh whatever gains were made. ECOT argues that far from gaining from tourism, the third world actually subsidises the tourism enterprise. ECOT has been exploring the issue of Tourism Debt for some time now, with the possibility of appropriate case studies. Perhaps the Philippines could be a case study. Any advice from you would be appreciated.

The Philippines

I will not expand on Philippines-specific concerns, as this Consultation, with the expertise and experience available around this table, will explore them.

But let me express my concern with the press release from the Philippines Tourism Secretary, Joseph H Durano in advance of the UNWTO Cebu meeting. The Secretary describes that meeting ‘as an exceptional exchange of ideas on how to foster robust tourism growth without sidestepping pressing global concerns’. I wonder what those concerns are and who identifies them? What is the process involved? Are those affected by tourism in the mix? The meeting itself is being held in five star ambience. I wonder what level of representation is there from people who feel firsthand the effects of tourism?

‘Fostering robust tourism’ in countries where it has been the operative policy is code for massive development of tourism structures and infrastructure while scant regard is paid to the impact on culture and the environment.

And this should not be surprising as tourism is seen mainly as an economic activity. The model that tourism follows the world over is an economic model, with the emphasis on profits. And latterly, there is the concern—based on economic grounds—with the potential fall in tourist arrivals as a result of the present economic crisis in the world.

Whether booming or not so booming, it has to be pointed out again and again that the tourism industry sells a product it does not own. The natural assets it markets is seen simply through the prism of the economic model but those assets belong to the community. The industry might consider land and other resources as real estate to be flogged but they are an inheritance of the people who live there. The least that should be expected is that the people affected have a say in what is going on around them but very often this does not occur.

So tourism as is conducted today is eventually a matter of justice and human rights.

I look forward to a robust discussion at the Consultation.

Related pages:

• Unity Statement: Tourism in the Philippines: A View from the Underside
• PfL, ECOT, Philippine groups probe impacts of global tourism
• A Moral Economy of Tourism