Tourism as engine of growth

Florence, Italy—After almost three years of not having traveled abroad because of the coronavirus pandemic, my wife and I joined several art circle friends on a trip to three European countries. As of this writing, we’ve covered Rome and Florence, both of which I last visited during the backpacking days of my youth. From Florence, we made side trips to the Tuscan cities of Pisa, San Gimignano, and Siena, and they certainly didn’t disappoint with their impressive medieval brick buildings, enormous churches, soaring bell towers, piazzas, trattorias, gelato stores, and quaint shops.

Virtually no one is wearing a mask in Italy anymore, except for some foreign tourists. We found it difficult to buy masks because stores and pharmacies don’t carry them anymore. Tourist sites, especially the Vatican grounds, are teeming with so many vacationers, even if it’s off season already. Italy was one of the worst hit by the pandemic, but it surely looks like it has moved on.

We didn’t bring our four-year-old child in this trip because of health concerns, and it has been the fly in the ointment in this otherwise perfect trip. We constantly miss his company, and video calls only worsen the longing. For a couple of weeks, we experience what overseas foreign workers (OFWs) endure by being away from their children for so many years, while they toil in foreign lands. Imagining how OFWs work abroad, while their children are growing up without them, is heart-wrenching.

One of the many cognitive benefits of travel is that you see and experience so many aspects of a different way of life that serve as learning moments. From food, drinks, designs, architecture, gardens, and so many cultural facets, we notice so many expressions of creativity that fire us up to think of how to also use ingenious ways to transform things at home. From transport efficiency, etiquettes, communal bonds, and multiple manifestations of government service that work for the common good, we question why the same forms of social accord and public service have not taken root in our country.

Italy is in the top five of the most visited countries in the world, with 64.5 million foreign tourists in 2019. Travel and tourism contributed 194.8 billion euros to the Italian economy in that year, before the pandemic wreaked havoc on the world economy. There’s no doubt that tourism is a major driving force that has been causing a chain reaction of growth in multiple sectors of the Italian economy. The competition among restaurants, hotels, clothing brands, and all other objects of commerce and leisure services sought after by tourists, spur developments in real estate, manufacturing, employment, service amenities, and a plethora of other trades.

While some businesses have a linear impact on other industries—they create growth in businesses that are either in their forward or backward chains—in contrast, the impact of growth in the tourism industry is multipronged because it creates a chain reaction of consumer demand in so many auxiliary industries that are vertically, horizontally, and diagonally connected to tourism. Tourism can make our country attain growth spurt, by sidestepping our handicaps in other industries we anchor our hopes on.

Traveling to other countries makes us realize that, like all tourists, we look for something different, something native, and something considered “exotic” by people of other cultures. One perfect example of a country that has immensely benefited from its exotic culture is Thailand. In 2019, Thailand was in the top ten of the most visited countries by international tourists, with almost 40 million foreign visitors, even edging out the United Kingdom and Germany. In contrast, there were only 8.3 million foreign tourists who visited the Philippines in 2019.

The success of other countries in making tourism a major force that drives growth in their economies shows us that there are huge advantages in preserving, nurturing, and highlighting our unique cultural heritage, instead of promoting our affinity for anything western. Combined with the beauty of our beaches and natural landscapes, the unique features of our way of life can make tourism an engine of growth for our slumbering stunted economy.

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