Do we really need to compete?

1. Measuring tourism
competitiveness –An
exercise in futility?
Raymund B. Habaradas
Director, Center for Business Research and Development
Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business
De La Salle University
Presented during the
AIM-ALT Lecture Series:
Raising travel and
tourism
competitiveness in the
Philippines towards
ASEAN integration
2015
November 28, 2014
Asian Institute of
Management
Makati City

2. Why do we
need to
‘compete’?
 Competitiveness - Root word: ‘compete’
 Why do we need to compete?
More than 100 million Filipinos
More than 600 million ASEAN citizens
 Bottom line: Tourism does not have to be a
contest between countries / destinations

3. What is
tourism for?
 Tourism is largely seen as an economic activity,
as exemplified by these:
 “the ability of a destination to deliver goods
and services, that perform better than other
destinations…” (Dwyer & Kim, 2003)
 “to deliver quality, innovative, and attractive
(e.g. providing good value for money) tourism
services to consumers and to gain market
shares on the domestic and global market
places…” (OECD definition)

4. What is
tourism for?
 But tourism is primarily a human activity
 And not all human interactions require
economic / monetary exchange

5. What is
tourism for?
 Tourism can enrich people (both locals and
tourists) not only economically / financially, but
also socially, culturally, and spiritually
 The interests of the tourists (and investors) do
not need to be prioritized over the interests of
the locals

6. Each
destination
is unique
 Each destination has its own development goals
 Cebu uses tourism to sustain its economic growth
 Bohol uses tourism to help preserve its cultural
heritage
 Palawan promotes both tourism and
environmental sustainability
 Tacloban is now using tourism to help rebuild
communities
 Each one of these destinations must use metrics
that are consistent with its goals; thus,
standardizing tourism measures serves very little
purpose

7. Each
destination
is unique
 Tourism planning and implementation is best
done at the local level
 Support from the central government (e.g.
infrastructure) helps, but is not critical – the
successes of Cebu, Bohol, and Camsur are
largely due to the efforts of local governments
 Let them decide on the measures / metrics they
want to use for planning their tourism
strategies and activities

8. Do we really
need to
measure
tourism
competitive
ness?
 Shouldn’t we utilize other readily available
measures / metrics instead? For example, key
tourism destinations can keep track of:
 Tourism employment and income (economic)
 Health statistics, e.g. STD occurrence (social)
 Water, energy consumption (environmental)
 Local tourism boards can choose their key
metrics, then formulate tourism strategies that
could address these concerns

9. The power
of words
 By adopting “tourism competitiveness” in our
vocabulary, we unwittingly accept all the
assumptions that the phrase carries:
 That tourism is mainly an economic activity
 That the gain of one destination is the loss of
another
 That the interests of the tourists must take
precedence over those of the local population
 That tourism policy making can only
be served by standardized metrics
Really?

10. The power
of words
 “Tourism competitiveness” is so un-Asian
 When we compete, someone always loses
 “Happy” is more Asian
 In Indonesian, ‘senang’ – happy
 in Malay, ‘raya’ – celebrate
 in Tagalog, ‘saya’ – happy

11. How about a
‘happiness’
index?
 Happy Planet Index (HPI)
 Measures what matters: the extent to which countries deliver
long, happy, sustainable lives for the people that live in them.
 Uses global data on life expectancy, experienced well-being
and Ecological Footprint to calculate this.
 An efficiency measure, it ranks countries on how many long
and happy lives they produce per unit of environmental input.
 Check out: http://www.happyplanetindex.org/

12. Let us write
our own
scripts
 “Compete” is individualist (Western)
 “Happy” is collective (Asian)
 “More fun in the Philippines” clicked, right?

13. Taking the
road less
travelled
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference
- By Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

14. Measuring tourism
competitiveness –An
exercise in futility?
Raymund B. Habaradas
Director, Center for Business Research and Development
Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business
De La Salle University
Presented during the
AIM-ALT Lecture Series:
Raising travel and
tourism
competitiveness in the
Philippines towards
ASEAN integration
2015
November 28, 2014
Asian Institute of
Management
Makati City