Phl eyes more tourists from ME

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is eyeing to grow tourist arrivals from the Middle East market by an average of 20 percent yearly, a ranking tourism official said.

Department of Tourism assistant secretary for international tourism promotions Benito Bengzon Jr. said they have been seeing a huge potential for growth in tourism specially in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar. At present, the entire Middle East market has generated about 55,000 tourists.

“I just returned from Dubai and Abu Dhabi where the largest gathering of travel professionals was held May 6-9. We had a 100-sqm pavilion participated in by 15 tourism-related companies, tour operators, resorts and hotels and Cebu Pacific. The results are very encouraging. We see this market growing over the years,” he said.

He said with the increase in the number of flights to these two destinations, they also hope to see a subsequent rise in tourist level.

“We had presentations to launch the new flights. Things are looking bright,” he said.

In the first quarter of 2013, the number of tourists from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE), grew 38 percent and 16 percent, respectively. Arrivals from Qatar, on the other hand, dropped eight percent during the three month period.

Overall, foreign arrivals from the Middle East registered a 22 percent growth in the first quarter of 2013 to 16,423 from 13,451 in the same period in 2012.

“We want UAE to grow faster. Today, its growth rate is at 16 percent, it’s slightly below the target. We have to bring it up to 20 percent,” he said.

Bengzon said they are optimistic that these levels would be sustained, if not surpassed, this year.

According to the DOT official, they are now actively engaged in advertising the Philippines in these countries.

“We will be having more familiarization tours to bring more travel representatives, media from the Gulf so we could promote the Philippines as one of the most attractive destinations in Southeast Asia,” he said.

Overall, foreign tourists arrival grew 10.7 percent in the first three months of the year.

The DOT official said they are optimistic that they could hit or even surpass five million international tourists arrival this year.