Tourism as the ultimate weapon against Poverty Introduction: The Philippines, as one of the Less Developed Countries all

over the globe, with the cooperation of World Tourism Organizations (also known as WTOs), has been working toward poverty reduction for decades. The improvement in the quality of life of the Filipino people is the main goal of the development efforts. The growing consensus in our country is towards a comprehensive approach to poverty reduction. Rapid and sustained economic growth is needed to improve the quality of life of the people and at the same time helping in reducing poverty, especially in the very poor and marginalized sectors of the economy. With poverty reduction as the main goal of our government, the demand for effective strategies is increasing for an ideal and effective result. Several poverty monitoring systems are being conducted both at the national and community level providing income and non-income based measures of poverty (). These strategies have become the basis for social and economic development plans and programs of national and local governments. In the Philippines, millions of Filipino people live with hunger and malnourishment, because they simply cannot afford to buy enough food, cannot afford to eat nutritious foods and cannot afford the farming supplies they need to grow enough good food of their own. In short, lack of livelihood and lack of opportunities to be productive citizen. Frankly speaking, poverty causes hunger and hunger can be viewed as a dimension of extreme poverty. Not every person is hungry, but almost all hungry people are poor. In addition to causing hunger, poverty limits a rural communitys ability to invest in its own development. Looking for an ideal and effective solution for the development and the eradication of poverty in the country, the government with the help of National Tourism Organizations (NTOs), who plays a central role in tourism in the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (Asean), has come up with a solution of bringing, presenting the world of tourism in the country (Reil Cruz, 2003). Basically, tourism is the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environments for a period of not more than one consecutive year, for leisure, business, and other purposes (WTO). Tourism industry really helps our county to mold its own economic

development, because it involves economic costs, including the direct costs incurred by tourism businesses, government costs for infrastructure to better serve tourists, as well as congestion and related costs borne by individuals in the community. In addition, it makes important contributions in our economy particularly to foreign exchange earnings, employment, and Gross Domestic Products (GDP). Indeed, it can be viewed as a great great school for modernization of the peoples values (WTO). The regional and international connections of industry, and its international competitive nature, mean that tourism can be an important element for the introduction of modern management techniques and technologies and labor brought in from abroad or from the metropolitan centers. On the other hand, it presents excellent opportunities for developing entrepreneurship, for stuff training and progression and for the development of transferable skills. In addition, it also contributes to poverty alleviation through direct taxation and the generation of taxable economic growth; taxes can be used as an instrument to alleviate poverty through education, health, and infrastructure

development. For instance, tax revenue from tourism is an important benefit at national and local level. Truly, it provides the financial resources for the development of infrastructure, some types of attractions and other public facilities and services, and tourism marketing and training required for developing tourism, as well as to help finance poverty alleviation programmes by our government sectors. In addition, touristrelated tax revenues can help to finance general community improvements and services used by all residents. The tourism industry makes important contributions to the economies of developing countries, particularly to foreign exchange earnings, employment, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Tourism is an industry that currently affects the livelihoods of many of the worlds poor, both positively and negatively. Tourism is clearly of great significance to developing countries. Reducing poverty, however, should be accompanied by a good poverty monitoring systems. Poverty monitoring provides government planners, policy makers and local leaders with data on which to base their social and economic development plans and programs. In addition, it is also used in guiding the implementation and continuing analysis of policies and programs, so that timely action can be taken to address the weaknesses or problems detected.

The existing poverty monitoring systems in the Philippines do provide essential information needed by both national and local governments as basis for their poverty reduction plans, strategies, and policies. There are weaknesses such as frequency of data collection and levels of disaggregation. There have been some initiatives to address these data gaps. One such initiative is the development of monitoring system at the community level. This is to strengthen the capacity of local government in diagnosing poverty at their localities since the national statistical offices cannot provide for all the data requirements due to resource constraints. The information has been helpful in identifying unmet needs at the local level and this has been the basis for action in some of the barangays. Sustainable development in tourism cannot be achieved by people working on their own, not even by market leaders. It can only be achieved collectively, step by step. For this we need strong and credible ecological alliances. But more than that, we need the people in the destinations as partners: decision markets, service providers, NGOs and local communities. Only then can made in tourism become a world-wide symbol for quality and the leitmotiv of sustainable development. Although tourism does provide economic benefits to a country at large, for example, foreign exchange earnings, government revenues, the dislocative effects of tourism the over-crowding, pressure on resources, challenges to established culture and the related demands which tourism makes on communities are borne locally. Unless some if not all of the economic and financial benefits from local tourism activity remains in the community, the costs of hosting tourists may be disproportionate to the benefits received and this is according to the Commission on Sustainable Development, Economic and Social Council, United Nations. It is important to note that many negative social changes often attributed to tourism could just as easily have been the result of modernization, in particular the development and diffusion of media and mass communications. Tourism has a variety of economic impacts. Tourists contribute to sales, profits, jobs, tax revenues, and income in an area. The most direct effects occur within the primary tourism sectors --lodging, restaurants, transportation, amusements, and retail trade . Through secondary effects, tourism affects most sectors of the economy. An economic impact analysis of tourism activity normally focuses on changes in sales, income, and

employment in a region resulting from tourism activity but at least not directly. For example, changes in prices that tourism can sometimes inflate the cost of housing and retail prices in the area, frequently on a seasonal basis; Changes in the quality and quantity of goods and services that tourism may lead to a wider array of goods and services available in an area (of either higher or lower quality than without tourism); Changes in property and other taxes because sometimes taxes to cover the cost of local services may be higher or lower in the presence of tourism activity. In some cases, taxes collected directly or indirectly from tourists may yield reduced local taxes for schools, roads, etc. In other cases, locals may be taxed more heavily to cover the added infrastructure and service costs. The impacts of tourism on local government costs and revenues are addressed more fully in a fiscal impact analysis; Economic dimensions of social and environmental impacts cause, there are also economic consequences of most social and environmental impacts that are not usually addressed in an economic impact analysis. These can be positive or negative. For example, traffic congestion will increase costs of moving around for both households and businesses. Improved amenities that attract tourists may also encourage retirees or other kinds of businesses to locate in the area. So, in other words, tourism had a big help to the poverty cases in the Philippines. What we just need to do is to pick destination and do something useful so that it will become a tourists spot because tourism requires appropriate controls to be put in place and effectively manage because it will either build you or destroy you. Organized public administration is also necessary to ensure optimum impact of tourism as government efforts to stimulate employment growth must emphasize the development of linkages between the tourism sector and the local support industries. Since many of the local tourism firm are to be small enterprises, governments should ensure that its policy and regulatory environments support SMEs by improving their access to markets, sources of information, training and credit. In this regard, due to consideration should be given also to providing economic and social opportunities for wider participation and, wherever possible and acceptable, dispersal of tourism activities and destinations to outlying areas in order to increase rural incomes.