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International Tourism Success through Local Domestic Tourim by Abby Laine S. Mendez Its more fun in the Philippines!

says the Philippines Department of Tourism. The slogan, itself, reflects an inbound-driven tourism strategy: promoting the whole Philippines to the world. This is understandable because our countrys tourism sector is institutionally organized; there is a national sector divided into regional sectors. Our Department of Tourism argues that the Philippines has big potential in the tourism industry because we are and we will continue to be a tourist destination ...that offers direct international access, seamless interconnectivity, worldclass tourist facilities and products that meet the demands of tomorrows tourist.1 This inbounddependent tourism strategy takes something important for granted: the importance of domestic tourism in the industry. The Department of Tourism should prioritize our domestic tourism because it is a good training ground in developing our country as an international tourist destination. Leipers model for tourism system is composed of these elements: departing Travellers, tourist generating region, transit route region, tourist destination region, and returning travellers. To understand this essays argument, let us put all necessary elements into two sets tourism systems based his model, one for inbound tourism and one for domestic tourism. We will see that the two sets have a common tourist destination region, so we try to combine the two tourism systems. This is a tourism system that shows a common destination, the Philippines, catering to two different sets of people. The only major difference in this system is on the tourists. Therefore, there should be just the same services catering to both sets. Why then should domestic tourism be prioritized? This is because the Filipino tourist is a good point of reference for developing tourism services. Good here means several things: accessible, less risks, and other conveniences for tourism research. The
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(Department of Tourism Philippines 2009)

need to know the satisfaction of domestic tourists is important because they will go through the same tourism experience that international tourists will also experience. It is disappointing, though, that our facilities for our domestic tourists are underdeveloped. An obvious evidence is our provincial airports. Most of these airports are small, unsystematic and not to mention, aesthetically unpleasing. These airports do not only cater to our local tourists. Inbound tourists may have to pass by these ports as they travel the whole Philippines. Even our main international airport was recently called as the world international airport.2 If we havent be able to develop regional facilities, how will be able to have those world-class facilities the Department of Tourism aims for? It is then logical to asses the industrys performance from its most basic unit: the local sector. If our domestic tourists receive premium tourism services, so will inbound tourists. This approach will provide convenience for our governments tourism sector to have a global vision for the Philippines tourism industry. We have the facilities, products, and resources, but we must take into account the importance of all our markets. Before we jump into bigger goals, we should see first if we are capable of fulfilling smaller aims because these small aims are keys to fulfilling these big visions. Domestic tourism should be prioritized because it is the key to a successful inbound tourism.

(Inquirer Global Nation 2011)

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