MANILA, Philippines – “Travel is not about sitting around and waiting for people to arrive, it’s about active marketing, and this is what we are trying to do, and what Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and the other airlines are trying to do,” Philippines Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez said tourist arrivals from Hong Kong have been on the rise even before the black travel alert was lifted.
More tourist arrivals are also expected in 2015, which has been declared by the DOT as “Visit Philippines year.”
Jimenez said the agency is also looking into bringing in more world-class tourism events and improving festivals in the coming months.
Tourist arrivals from Hong Kong are expected to increase further following the resolution of a long-running dispute over a hostage crisis that started in 2010.
He noted that Hong Kong is among the country’s top 10 tourist source markets.
“Even before the amber alert, and before the upgrade, it was already growing slightly but of course we didn’t want to flaunt it. It will now grow a lot faster,” he told ANC on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the Hong Kong government announced that it has adjusted the travel alert to “amber,” which means that “Hong Kong residents who intend to visit the country or are already there should monitor the situation, exercise caution and attend to personal safety.”
Jimenez added that travel to and from China is “unimpeded” despite the territorial dispute between China and the Philippines.
“The good news about China is—and I’m almost afraid to jinx it—we are growing by about 67 per cent in 2013. They are up from a little over 200,000 to over 450,000 in 2013, in spite of everything…There is a certain momentum in travel that is above all the tension, there is a kind of a tacit agreement around the world that tourism is not part of any political [issue],” he said.
China is the Philippines’ fourth top tourist source behind South Korea, US, and Japan.
The tourism secretary also revealed that the second phase of the DOT marketing campaign will be site-specific, focusing on tourist hotspots like Boracay, Cebu and Davao.
The DOT recently released an ad on Boracay, promoting it as “Asia’s 24/7 island.”
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