By Othel V.
Campos | Posted on Feb. 06, 2013 at 12:01am
[
manilastandardtoday.com ]
The
government is keeping its initial 10-percent growth target in domestic tourism
revenues for 2013 from an estimated 35 million tourists.
“Filipinos
have great appreciation of travel and we need not promote that hard. They do
their own bookings, they go online,” Tourism Assistant Secretary Bong Bengzon
said Tuesday during the press launch of 20th Travel Tour Expo at Romulo Café in
Makati City.
The
government also expects revenues from foreign tourists to increase at least
another 10 percent.
Revenues from
domestic tourism in 2011 hit P800 billion while those from foreign tourists
contributed P100 billion. The government has not released the final figures on
tourism revenues for 2012.
Domestic
tourists in 2011 reached about 27 million with Boracay, one of the country’s
premier destinations, welcoming its one millionth visitor in October last year.
Bengzon said
the Tourism Department was keeping its earlier forecast of 5.5 million foreign
tourist arrivals in 2013.
Foreign
tourist arrivals hit about 4.27 million in 2011, including of more than 1
million Koreans.
“Japan, the
US and China will continue to be the second-largest group. Malaysia and Taiwan
have shown strong performance and may likely increase their arrival frequency
in 2013,” he said.
The
department said the Philippines needed 50,000 additional rooms in 2013 based on
strong indications of increased influx of foreign travelers.
Meanwhile,
the Philippine Travel Agencies Association said eco-tourism would become a
prominent trend in travel.
“We have new
destinations we are promoting. I think it will be good for them to have a
certain confidence level [with local tourists] [to] accommodate inbound
travelers. This expo will be a good venue and might serve as a dry run for
them,” said former Travel Agencies Association president and Travel Expo
chairman Aileen Clemente.
One of the
new destinations is the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority where about 17 hotels
and resorts are operating. Baler in Aurora province is another emerging
destination that attracts foreign tourists.
The three-day
Travel and Tours Expo 2013 will be held at the SMX Convention Halls from Feb.
17 to 19, 2013.
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