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CEBU CITY, Philippines - The tourism department is aggressively promoting the country to duplicate or even surpass last year's target of three million tourists.
Tourism Undersecretary Phineas Alburo said Sunday the Department of Tourism (DOT) will conduct more sales missions and promotional campaigns to hit the department's goal.
He said these activities prove that “we are serious in developing and improving our tourism sector.”
Alburo reiterated the previous statement of Tourism Secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano that they will take closer look on three key tourism factors—volume of tourist arrivals, length of the stay of tourists and average daily spending in the country.
In 2007, Durano said the three million tourists who visited the country, contributed at least $4.88 billion to the economy.
Tourists are expected to increase by 8 to 10 percent every year.
“We continue to remind foreign tourists that we are here. (If we don't do that), they might forget us. We aim to have our tourism booths in every sales mission,” Alburo said.
He said promotional campaigns of other places such as Batanes in northern Luzon are also being done even if these places are not included in the central Philippines super-region, the country's tourism hub.
“It is not only Cebu although it (Cebu) is the gateway,” he told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview on Sunday.
Organizing events with different Philippine embassies worldwide is also another strategy which DOT has been utilizing.
“DOT has been in close coordination with different embassies all over the world. We are not particularly packaging it in a way that only Cebu will be visited (by tourists),” Alburo said.
“We regularly send promotional materials to embassies whenever they tell us that they are going to sales missions to different countries,” he added.
In turn, DOT also invites embassy representatives to join the Philippine delegation in any sales mission around the world.
Aside from Russia and India, Scandinavian countries such as Sweden are also seen as another potential market for Philippine tourist destinations.
In March 2005, DOT in partnership with the Philippine Embassy in Stockholm participated in the Sweden International Travel and Tourism Trade Fair.
Alburo said Swedes are said to be searching for alternative holiday spots in Southeast Asia with weddings and honeymoons, adventure, eco-tourism, golf, diving and snorkeling and cultural shows as the best-selling packages.
He also said that marketing the country's tourist destinations to Russians and Indians continues to be aggressive.
“Promoting our destinations to these tourists remains the same. We will continue our tourism promotions. For Russia, the 21-day visa free entry is already in place,” he said.
Thailand and Malaysia are considered as the closest competitors of the Philippines in attracting tourists, Alburo said.
In Cebu, National Association of Independent Travel Agencies Cebu president Jenny Franco said they expect more tourists to come this year as more affordable travel packages are being offered by tour operators.
“Accommodation is not that expensive anymore because we also show a list of affordable pension houses to our guests,” she said.
