ARTICLE | Tourism in the Philippines: An Overview

Tourism in the Philippines: An Overview

The Philippines is one of the world’s most exotic countries, one shrouded in a little mystery by its rather isolated position on the Eastern side of Asia. The country as an island nation, consists of sprawling tropical archipelago, boarded by the Pacific Ocean to the East and the West Philippine Sea to the West. It is claimed to consist of 7,107 islands, though most of these are too tiny to be inhabited or even have an official name.

Hence, tourism is one of the biggest and fastest growing economic sectors in the global economy and has significant environmental, cultural, social and economic effects, both positive and negative. It can be an important component to sustain development of many local communities, provided that the community is actively involved in it, that economic benefits are equitably shared and that it is part of a diversified local economy and does not undermine local culture and existing local sustainable economic activity. It can also enhance cultural and historical traditions, which often contributes to conservation and the sustainable management of natural resources.

As tourism is essentially dependent on an unspoiled, natural or unpolluted environment; it follows that tourism has both a responsibility for, and a need to invest in the maintenance of the natural environmental protection which can provide unique opportunities for awareness raising and enhancing support for conservation.

However, tourism can and often have destructive effects on biodiversity and pristine environment resulting to misuse of natural resources such as freshwater, forest and coral reefs. For instance, in a number of areas, tourism has resulted in serious water shortages affecting local communities and the tourism industry. Forests have depleted through wood collection for fuel; and coral reefs have been damaged by sewage, sedimentation, divers, snorkelers and boats.

In order to avoid such impacts, tourism should be planned, managed and undertaken in a way that is environmentally sustainable, socially beneficial and economically viable.
It is important that tourists understand both the negative and positive aspects of tourism so they can contribute to more sustainable approaches. Conservation organizations should use the opportunities tourism provides to raise awareness of the issues, to provide other significant benefits such as income for natural resources management and to ensure implementation of key measures such as protection of fragile areas.