Chinese Travel Agents Vow Support for RP Tourism

Various travel agents from China have committed to promote the Philippines’ tourism products and destinations to their countrymen upon returning home from a trip to one of the country’s prized destinations — Palawan.

Kelly Jiao from Shanghai, who led the Chinese delegation to the 10th Philippine Travel Exchange (Phitex) held recently at the Manila Hotel, said they were  so impressed by the warmth and hospitality of the Filipinos that they immediately enjoyed their brief stay in the country.

“At first, our group was a bit worried and wary.  But after two days, we were enjoying our stay and didn’t worry at all as we met with our local counterparts for the Phitex 2010 business meetings,” Jiao said.

Similarly, Shanghai Synwalk International Travel Service general manager Bob Jia said in a TV interview that his company would continue pushing the Philippines to the Chinese market.

Jia described the Philippines as a country of beautiful scenery and wonderful people that the world should see and appreciate.

The tourism industry is hopeful of brighter things to come as the recently-concluded promotion events yielded positive results. Phitex brought in 96 foreign buyers, including nine from China, to meet up and do business with local tourism promoters, numbering almost 200.
Based on initial reports, 14 buyers and 26 sellers made on-site bookings and an average of 22 travel trade established.

Tourism Secretary Alberto A. Lim formally opened the business meetings with a short message that exuded confidence in hitting the government’s 3.3-million target foreign visitor arrivals for full-year 2010.

“I am truly grateful that, despite the challenges we faced the past week and a half, we were still able to attract 96 foreign delegates from around the world and 191 Filipino sellers representing 112 companies. I believe this is a clear testament of your confidence in Philippine tourism,” Lim said.

Lim also told the participants that for the first five months of the year, foreign visitor arrivals had already reached almost 1.5 million or an 11.2 percent increase over the same period last year.

“If we are able to sustain this growth rate through your unwavering commitment of support our promotions efforts, we may hit our target of 3.3 million arrivals by year-end,” Lim stressed at the opening of Phitex 2010’s Travel Exchange comprising the business meetings between the foreign buyers and local sellers.

“It is a positive sign that recovery will happen sooner than expected,” Lim remarked.  “The problem, after all, is not insurmountable. We know that wounds will heal in time. We are one to show our sincere sympathy with China, the hostage victims, and their families.”  

The DoT was the first to initiate sympathy events like the Buddhist service and wreath-laying at the hostage site the following day which was also declared by Malacañang as a day of mourning. On the ninth day after the incident, a requiem mass was jointly hosted with the City of Manila and Radio Veritas, attended by sympathizers from the industry, government,  the  academe, and ordinary folk.   Similar events were seen in various parts of the country.

Also right after the incident, tourism and private sector leaders in Manila met with the DoT to formulate contingency plans which will be implemented in the appropriate time. These include sending a delegation to seek assistance from the Hong Kong travel trade towards lifting of the travel ban. Regular monitoring of cancellations will be made to serve as a barometer of the market’s sentiments and readiness to restore business with the Philippines.

In the meantime, while promotional activities in Hong Kong are being reviewed, the DoT will still continue efforts in the other source markets.  Among those to push through are participation in travel fairs in Busan, Korea, Japan, Australia, and others.  The DoT tourism attachés, currently in Manila for the PHITEX event, were instructed during an ensuing two-day marketing workshop, to restudy their plans and formulate fresh schemes to attain the new targets set for the year and towards 2016.

“We want to maintain or strengthen our presence in the other markets.  The challenge is to create demand in new source markets, sustain interest of traditional ones and eventually, work on winning back the others we have poor showing in. Such will involve a lot of creativity in the midst of limited resources.  It can be done,” said the tourism chief.

The DoT will pour in more resources and strengthen relationships with various stakeholders to push product development and raise domestic tourism as the backbone of the industry.  “Local tourism growth has been on the uptrend and based on PTM partial figures, the domestic market is seen to grow further.  By building a broader domestic base, our industry bottom lines will avoid being affected by negative events such as this,” the Secretary stated.

Upon arriving in Manila last August 31, the Chinese visitors and the rest of the foreign delegation had a welcome dinner at the H2O Hotel, a water, light and laser show at the Ocean Park, and a tour of the Oceanarium, all comprising a tourism complex at the Rizal Park near the Manila Bay.

The following day, the Chinese delegates had a city tour that culminated in a dinner show at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila, where they were treated to a night of Filipino music and world-class entertainment.

After the dinner show, the Chinese delegates huddled around Secretary Lim for a souvenir photo, some of them flashing the “peace” sign to signify the close ties between China and the Philippines.

The next day brought all of the 96 foreign travel agents to the Manila Hotel for a full day of pre-scheduled one-on-one business sessions with local sellers of various tourism products.

Such business activities were capped with a farewell dinner and party at The Gallery of the Greenbelt 5 in Makati, where they got acquainted with each other before parting ways for their respective post-event tours to the different tourism destinations across the archipelago up to Tuesday (Sept. 7).

While the Chinese delegation was bound for Palawan, the others were headed for Cebu, Bohol, Boracay, Bicol, Clark, Subic and the Ilocos Region.

The three-day Philippine Travel Mart staged by the Philippine Tour Operators Association (PHILTOA), happening right after PHITEX, was attended by  local tour operators and national  and local governments presenting new products and offering exciting and affordable tour packages.

The organizers’ report revealed utilization of 15 pavilions by regional and private exhibitors and 208 booths by 131 companies. About 139,000 foot traffic was recorded versus 133,000 last year while partial results show that sales completed on site reached P17.3 million compared to P15 million in 2009.  Post after sales is estimated at P19.5 million.  These indicators stress that domestic tourism remains unaffected by the current crisis.

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