The Philippines’ Tourism Industry

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Asia is one of the best travel destinations for tourists around the world. The region is famous for having several tourists’ attraction sites, for example, mountains, monuments, and water bodies. According to many people today, tourism has become an activity of everyday life. Tourism includes all the activities involved in the movements that happen away from individual’s place of work or even their places of residence. It is the right way of one using or instead of spending their free time or what is called leisure time. Many states have the industry of tourism, and many tourists all over the world visit them to enjoy their free times (Goodall & Ashworth, 2013). The Philippines is one of the many countries involved in tourism, and it has a diversity of cultural, religious traditions and also a lot of wealth tourist attractions.

The Philippines serves as one of the most visited areas in Southeast Asia. Tourism in the Philippines has contributed to about 10.6% of the total GDP. Worldwide, among other industries, travel and tourism are considered as the most critical industry. It has created jobs for too many people all over the world and thus has helped in the mitigation of poverty (Aguda et al. 2013). When tourism is well enhanced, it helps in boosting a country’s economy. It has always affected the cultural, life as well as in society as a whole. It has helped in enriching many lives throughout the world. Tourism has helped in the development of the economy in the Philippines. The government of Philippine has even considered all the positive effects of tourism and thus made it an important priority in economic development. It is regarded as the fast-growing industry in the Philippines as many tourists tend to be specialized in different sectors of tourism. Tourism which involves traveling to heritage areas has improved in most of the regions today having Philippine included, and the same is expected to continue. For the tourism industry in Philippine to grow and keep growing, then it is essential to look at the marketing plan, strategies, and marketing work of the industry as a whole.

One may start by understanding what marketing means as many people have always had confusion on this. It is defined as the process of business that involves developing relationships between customers as well as satisfying their needs. It can also be said to be the action of promoting and selling products and services and which could include market research and advertising as well (Gonzalez, 2013). Tourism in many countries as the Philippines is seen as a business and therefore, it is of importance that this industry observes the following concept that brings out that every organization or company should:-

They should ensure that they have selected destinations that are per what the customers need and thus be able to meet the needs and wants of the tourists.

Give the tourists different destinations to enable them to choose from the very many choices of destinations

Marketing efforts should also be put in place to ensure that they have well fitted in the tourism industry as a whole and also the other set objectives.

The tourism industry should also set objectives and goals that they should all work towards achieving and in the long run satisfy the customers’ needs and wants.

When an industry like that of tourism observes the following concept of marketing, then it’s able to come up with viable destinations and of high demand by the tourists. It also helps in avoiding time wastage as well as wastage of money in the development of a destination that is of no or less appeal which would have instead been used in the development of a more wanted destination by the tourists.

A product can be a service, a good or even an idea. Therefore tourism under this context can be classified as a service. It is intangible, and thus it is tough for a customer to be able to compare between two different services as products. It is as well challenging to market a service as a product, and this can be translated as being difficult then to promote tourism as a product in the market.

It is, therefore, the role and responsibility of the industry that deals with tourism to ensure that it provides a right product that is of high quality as it might be hard for customers to gauge this. For an industry to be able to improve their effectiveness as well as the efficiency, then it is of importance that they look so much in their marketing plan (Cochrane, 2007). A marketing plan is an outline that clearly shows the marketing strategies that the industry is to employ in the coming year or even month. Any marketing plan of an industry if well-constructed helps in the allocation of resources and also helps in making of good crucial decisions. Different elements should be featured in a good marketing plan for the industry. These are as stated below:-

The objectives of the sector

The marketing strategies also called the 4 P’S

The market environment

The Country profile

Market identification

Market objectives under each mentioned segments

Budget

Plan implementation

Evaluation and control

Objectives

Objectives can be defined as the goals or aims that are set by an organization or an industry when it’s promoting its products and services. They are meant to target the potential customers or consumers, and they should be achieved within a set frame of time. Tourist destinations in the Philippines should come up with set goals and objectives to be able to assess the progress of the industry. All decisions should be put in place in the objectives for instance: finances and other critical decisions of the industry. Some of the purposes of the Philippines tourism industry are as follows:-

To promote tourism with dignity and respect

To build confidence and also pride among all the local communities

To also encourage community-based as well as responsible tourism among many others.

The Marketing Environment.

In the marketing environment, the tourism industry is required to analyze the social, political and economic factors that can affect it. It is after they analyze these factors that they can deal with them and thus ensure the steady running of the business. An industry should put a lot of focus on the changes noted on demographics. Let the industry tell whether the population is growing or not. They can also focus on the number of people whether employed, not employed or even retired who can travel. The industry can also look at the economic status of the people (Gooroochurn & Sugiyarto, 2005). Let the industry know how many people can afford traveling and how does that affect the industry. Is there a crisis of unemployment and if yes, how does it affect the sector may it be directly or indirectly. Technology today is a significant concern in many industries, and in the tourism industry, it is not left behind. As an industry, come up with new tourist activities that are up to date. Individuals always want new ways of doing things, and thus tourism industries should provide some different ways of doing things and at the same time be able to satisfy their customers. The Philippines has recently been involved in many innovations that have helped in boosting the tourism industry as a whole.

Every industry has potential competitors. It is therefore wise for each industry to identify their potential competitors and be able to know what they do better than them and also how they can be able to outdo them. It is at this point where the analysis of the industry’s strengths and weaknesses comes in. Know the competitive advantage that you have over your competitors and thus utilize it to beat them. In order to do this, then the industry should be able to analyze the competitors set prices, the features of the products they offer, what type of customers they do attract and all these should be in comparison to what the industry in question provides.

Marketing Strategies (4P’S).

It is a combination of different factors that can be controlled and influenced by industry in order to determine the consumers’ purchase levels of the product(s). Some of the elements that are controlled by the industry to influence the purchase level of consumers include:-

Product

Price

Place/location

Promotion

Product

Can be referred to anything offered to the market to satisfy the needs and wants of a consumer. It can either be tangible or intangible. The recreational services that tourism industry provides are the product they offer to their consumers. It is imperative that the services the tourism industry decides to provide not to be based on what they think is the best, or what the management believes should be in place but instead, it should be based on the needs, wants and desires of the potential customers (Winter et al. 2002). It is then good for the industry to ensure that they have improved on the quality of the product they offer and should not be necessary for accordance with what the competitors are offering. The Philippines is composed of 7641 islands.

It is known to have vibrant biodiversity and thus the main tourist attraction in the country. It has several monuments, mountains, beaches, and many other tourist attraction areas. It is therefore of importance that this country takes great care of these areas which are among the products offered to the tourists and also improve them and thus would have improved the quality of the product, the service, they deliver.

Price

Price can be referred to as the cost incurred in order to get a product or a service. It is the cost that a customer or a consumer has to incur for them to get a product or a service. In the tourism industry, it costs the tourists a cost to travel from their areas of work, residences and other places to move to the destinations they want as tourists. It is one of the common things or outcomes in tourism. When the tourism industry, as well as any other industry, plans to set prices for their products and services, it is of importance for them to consider different factors before doing it:-

Let them know the prices that their competitors have set for the same services or products before establishing their own prices.

Know the cost that you will incur before providing or rather offering the service to the tourist, consumer.

Are the consumers, in this case, the tourists willing to pay the price that you have set?

What are the objectives and goals that the industry has set?

Know the economic climate around your industry to be able to set realistic prices.

The tourism industry also looks at the peak periods or the non-peak periods when they are setting prices.

Place or the Location

This is the area your business is located. How accessible is the place by the potential customers? It is the responsibility of a tourist industry to come up with ways of accessing the location of their business as well as also how to leave the area. When a tourist finds it hard to locate a specific site of attraction, no matter how good it seems, they might opt not to visit the place ever again. Therefore, tourism industries should not only focus on the services inside the industry but rather should also know how easy one can access them and leave without being affected and finding it a bad experience. It earns an industry an extra credit when they can provide some maps; they can also give what we call estimate of travel time especially from some well know landmarks and many other things.

Promotion

Promotion is simple terms can be said to be the publicizing of a product, maybe a venture or even an organization in order to increase public awareness or even the sales. Promotion helps the customers, in this case, the tourists to decide whether they are going to visit your industry or not. It is essential that the industry especially a tourist attraction industry not to make some exaggerated claims as it would end up disappointing potential customers and you, industry, may as well lose their trust and them as your customers forever (Porananond & King, 2014). This is the reason as to why the Philippines tourism industry puts a lot of emphasis on the promotion part to ensure public awareness.

Market Identification

Marketing identification can also be referred to as market segmentation. It is the process of dividing the potential customers into different groups, or what is called the segments and this is done according to the characteristics of the customers. It makes it easier for marketers to be able to specialize and personalize their marketing campaigns. This also helps on saving on time used, money, as well as other resources used as all these, will be allocated to groups rather than to individuals and thus reducing the costs. Personalization by marketers also comes along with market segmentation especially when they see a specific group of customers is likely to buy a product than the other customers (Gooroochurn & Sugiyarto, 2005). They then try to put more focus on such customers and not the others. Tourism industries always make a huge mistake when they try to be everything to all the people who come by. This always puts the tourism industry under lots of risks as it is hard to create a market strategy that can be able to consider a mass market.

The Country Profile/ Destination Profile.

For a tourist industry or destination to be able to market itself well, they need to tell people where they get their resources from and how well they have been able to satisfy their customers. Describe all the activities and recreation facilities that your industry offers may it be the entertainment facilities, historical, cultural or even restaurants. Make sure to mention the quantity, quality as well as the availability of the things you have mentioned (Theobald, 2012). Give clear descriptions of all the areas you have specialized in and how it would be of benefit to your customers. For instance, as for the Philippines, they should mention all the monuments, mountains, beaches and any other tourist attraction areas they have and all the activities and services they offer to their customers.

Budget

A budget is a calculated and planned estimate of income and the expenditure for a given set of time. When the overall budget gets too high, it is then appropriate for the industry in question to check and change the set objectives and goals. As per 2019, Philippines tourism budget was proposed to be P3.39 billion. Every industry should ensure that the budget they come up with is very realistic (Spiller, 2014). Budgets are always meant to be so flexible, but again it is crucial that an industry learns to have personal discipline which enables them to adhere to it. Philippines’ tourism industry is an excellent example in this as it has been seen coming up with different budgets at different times in the years that has always enabled it to carry out its tourism activities smoothly as well as improve it.

Implementation

It is at this stage the things put in the marketing plan are implemented or put in practice. Many industries have been seen to fail due to poor execution of various strategies. Every industry should always strive to improve the likelihood of proper implementation. During the implementation, it is good to try as much as possible to adhere to the set budget and also to set some timelines and as well give deadlines for the same.

Evaluation

It is suitable for the tourism industry to monitor the progress always and be sure to evaluate it. Evaluation is the determination of the significance of something regarding some set standards and can see the worth. It is mainly carried out to be able to make some informed judgments. The tourist industry in the Philippines has always made some informed decisions based on their evaluations, and this has helped the industry be where it is today (Leung & Baloglu, 2013). At this stage, the results are always compared with the set objectives and also determining any need for change. This stage is critical as it helps in taking the appropriate measures in case of any deviation from the expected results.

Conclusion

The Philippines is one of the major visited areas in Southeast Asia. Therefore it should ensure that it has improved its marketing plan and also look at what they have done well and strive even to do much better. It can be summed up that customer satisfaction in tourism is mostly gauged by how well the service was delivered. It is therefore essential that the tourism industry improves the way of providing their services to be able to satisfy the customer needs and wants.

References

Aguda, L. A. E., Tamayo, M. R. B., & Barlan Jr, L. (2013). Effects of Heritage Tourism to the Municipality of Taal, Batangas, Philippines. Educational Research International, 2(1), 91-95.

Cochrane, J. (Ed.). (2007). Asian tourism: Growth and change. Routledge.

Gonzalez, V. V. (2013). Securing paradise: Tourism and militarism in Hawai’i and the Philippines. Duke University Press.

Goodall, B., & Ashworth, G. (2013). Marketing in the Tourism Industry (RLE Tourism): The promotion of destination regions. Routledge.

Gooroochurn, N., & Sugiyarto, G. (2005). Competitiveness indicators in the travel and tourism industry. Tourism Economics, 11(1), 25-43.

Leung, X. Y., & Baloglu, S. (2013). Tourism competitiveness of Asia Pacific destinations. Tourism Analysis, 18(4), 371-384.

Porananond, P., & King, V. T. (Eds.). (2014). Rethinking Asian Tourism: Culture, Encounters and Local Response. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Spiller, J. (2014). History of convention tourism. In Convention Tourism (pp. 27-44). Routledge.

Theobald, W. F. (Ed.). (2012). Global tourism. Routledge.

Winter, T., Teo, P., & Chang, T. C. (Eds.). (2002). Asia on tour: Exploring the rise of Asian tourism. Routledge.