RP’s tourism, BPO sectors most vulnerable to crises:

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines’ tourism and business process outsourcing (BPO) industries are currently the most vulnerable to the deepening effects of the global slowdown, a presidential economic adviser warned. Visitors headed for Manila are expected to decline because bulk of tourists – at 93 percent – come from countries that are either in recession or about to enter one, Albay Governor and presidential economic adviser Jose Clemente “Joey" S. Salceda said.

From 2001 to 2006, only seven percent of Philippine tourist traffic came from countries within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Salceda said. During these periods, the country’s neighbors such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and even Brunei had double-digit intra-Asean tourist traffic levels, he said.

Similarly, BPOs have also lost a number of its big-ticket customers when the world’s biggest financial service companies were toppled by the credit crunch. Despite these developments, it remains noteworthy that local contact centers choose to launch or expand their operations, Salceda said. Office space vacancies have risen to 501,000 square meters last year from 330,000 square meters in 2007, he said.

Recently, Arvato Digital Services, a a German-American contact center company, opened its 600-seat facility that will help support Fortune 500 companies in Eastwood Cyberpark in Quezon City. Although the company already has space for a facility three times its current size, it still has plans to expand its local operations, Axel Kruse, Arvato’s CEO and President for North America, said during the opening.

The event was attended by Vice President Noli de Castro and German Ambassador to the Philippines Christian-Ludwig Weber-Lortsch. “Companies across industries are recognizing that the current global economic crisis requires them to increase emphasis on the quality of their customer care," Kruse said.