Philippines welcomes Chinese guests

Promotional campaigns, new air routes are granting access to more travelers

More than 675,000 Chinese tourists visited the Philippines last year, increasing 37.7 percent over 2015, making China replace Japan as the third-largest inbound tourism source of the Philippines, after South Korea and the United States.

The Philippine tourism industry expects to welcome 1 million Chinese tourists this year, said Maricon Ebron, an official from the Philippine Department of Tourism, at a tourism project promotional campaign event in late March in Beijing.

She added that the department is negotiating with other government agencies to relax visa policies for Chinese.

At the promotional campaign event, the Philippine Department of Tourism released its latest advertising film, Anak, showcasing the country's abundant tourism resources and friendly local people.

Representatives of local travel agencies, hotels and airlines in the Philippines showed the most popular destinations on the Chinese market and negotiated with Chinese travel agencies.

A number of newly opened destinations were introduced to the Chinese market, such as Laoag, Bana Wei and Northern Mindanao.

The 2017 Miss Universe contest in January and the launch of the China-ASEAN Year of Tourism in March are expected to make the country an even more popular tourist destination.

Direct flights between China and the Philippines keep increasing to deliver more tourists, including those opened by Philippine Airlines recently linking Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan, and Cebu and Kalibo, a major hub for the popular destination, Boracay Island.

According to Philippine newspaper Business Mirror, in the first two months of this year, tourists from China grew by 25.4 percent year-on-year, second only to India. The Philippine government recorded an increase in Chinese visa applications of more than 250 percent in that period.

The Philippine government currently allows Chinese tourists to obtain a visa on arrival, and is planning to start the visa-free policy within the year.

caoyingying@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/15/2017 page44)