Philippine tourism spearheads talks to ease entry of Chinese tourists

The Philippine Department of Tourism (PDOT) is spearheading the Forum on Global Tourism Trends and Philippine Tourism – a series of consultative discussions with government agencies and tourism private sector whose main goal is to formulate strategies that will make the Philippines more attractive to foreign tourists.

The consultative talks will be conducted together with the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, Bureau of Immigration and Deportation and tour operators and travel agencies in Cebu on September 29 and in Manila on October 1.

Tourism Secretary Joseph Felix Durano said that the first two legs of the roundtable consultations will focus on the China market. The Cebu and Manila meetings are intended to accomplish two major endeavors – ease entry requirements to the Philippines and upgrade the tourism services to lure more Chinese tourists to the country in the next five years.

The tourism chief said that the holding of the roundtable talks is part of the Arroyo administration’s thrust for tourism as outlined in the Medium Term Development Plan. The MTDP identified short haul markets in North Asia – Japan, China and Korea as the main markets for the Philippines.

“Although statistics showed that Chinese tourist arrivals are up 32 percent from January to August this year compared to last year, there is still a great deal that needs to be done if we are to dramatically increase our share of Chinese tourists coming to the country”, the tourism chief explained.

Statistics showed that tourist arrivals from mainland China totaled 26,471 from 20,065 during the same period least year. Durano said that DOT is highly confident to double these figures by the end of the year, especially with the opening of the PDOT office in Beijing last July.

PDOT Tourism Standards Director Atty. Ma. Victoria Jasmin said that roundtable meetings in Cebu and Manila are also intended to review the country’s policy on granting “visa-upon-arrival” for mainland Chinese tourists entering the country via Cebu and Manila. Currently, Chinese nationals are only granted this privilege if they enter the Philippines via Laoag.

Jasmin added that the talks will also focus on upgrading tourism service standards and procedures on handling Chinese tour groups – from their arrival at the airport till their departure, creating value-for-money tour packages and producing brochures and promotional materials in the Chinese language. She said the next round of talks is scheduled by mid-October and will tackle strategies for the Korean market, currently the country’s third largest market.

China remains the biggest market in Asia with its outbound tourist market reaching 20.2 million in 2003, with more than 11 million Chinese going to various Asian countries. The World Tourism Organization projects China’s outbound market to be one of the largest by 2020 with 130 million tourists.

September 29, 2004   Posted in: Philippines