The country’s retail sector has to come up with strategies to fully tap the tourism sector as a major market segment. Jorge T. Mendiola, president of the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) and SM vice president for operations, said that, during a meeting held in Cebu recently, the PRA discussed the need for the retail industry to implement measures to maximize the potential of the tourism market.

In an interview, Mendiola noted the success generated by Singapore and Hong Kong in attracting tourists by offering their goods on sale. During his speech before PRA Cebu members, he also cited the Department of Tourism report showing that the tourist arrivals for January this year went up by 7.8 percent, from 270,000 the same month last year to 293,803.

The January tourist receipts also increased 24 percent to 4 million from 7 million in the same period last year, Mendiola added.  To tap into this market, he said, the PRA would work with the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corp. (PCVC) in the implementation of the Mabuhay Shopping Spree project.

To run from June 2008 to December 2008, the project aims to stimulate more shopping among tourists by distributing Mabuhay Privilege Shopping cards, which would entitle them to discounts from participating retailers, to tourists and balikbayans, Mendiola said.

However, Mendiola said that tourists go to Singapore and Hong Kong for shopping because of its wide variety of branded products that are famous worldwide, which the Philippines could not offer.

Mendiola, along with the other members of the PRA board, came to Cebu to attend the first general membership meeting of the PRA Cebu chapter.

Bernie Liu, PRA vice president for regional affairs, said the retail sector has to work with the DOT because retail and tourism sectors are interrelated. As tourism grows, retailing would also grow, said Liu, who is the chief executive officer of the Golden ABC Inc., makers of Penshoppe.

‘We hope to be able to institutionalize something soon. Hopefully, we can make our own mark,’ he said in an interview.

Liu also disclosed that exports of Penshoppe to the Middle East and the opening of Penshoppe franchise outlets abroad has helped create awareness of the brand. Meanwhile, Mendiola also urged the retail industry players to look at the business process outsourcing (BPO) as an emerging market.

He said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) estimated that the BPO industry would employ about 1.2 million people by 2010. ‘This development has opened new windows of opportunity for the different sectors involved in servicing this growing market,’ Mendiola said.

The emerging BPO sector has encouraged a growing number of retail and convenience stores, fast foods, restaurants, coffee and teashops, he said. ‘With more money in their hands but little time to use it, this young market requires a new way of marketing and merchandising and all of us retailers will do well to look at this segment of the market with an entirely new appreciation of the possibilities they can offer,’ Mendiola said.

Think positive: He also told PRA Cebu members to think positive despite the many challenges the retail industry faces. ‘Despite the present political crisis and the challenges specific to our industry, we should always remember that our industry is a resilient one.

It rides high on a good economy and it can bounce back from a lethargic economy,’ Mendiola said. He noted that the dollar remittances continue to grow in January 2008, reaching .3 billion, which was 15 percent higher than remittances in November and December last year.

‘Though our OFW (overseas Filipino workers) families bemoan the strong peso, which diminished the value of their hard-earned dollar, the economy still rides on these remittances sent home, which, in turn, fuel consumption,’ Mendiola added.