Cebu losing tourists from China

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu is losing Chinese tourists to Boracay.

This was revealed yesterday by Department of Tourism 7 Director Rowena Montecillo. She said DOT will meet with tour operators to determine the reasons behind what she described as an “exodus” of Chinese tourists.

Just last year, Montecillo emphasized the need to continue to hold on to the China market as it noted a decline in the number of Chinese tourists to Cebu.

Records of the DOT had revealed that the China market placed only fifth from January to May 2011 and that visitors from China only totaled 7,677. The other year, the number of tourists from China totaled 19,296.

The DOT was still hopeful that the figure would pick up, especially with the several chartered flights to Cebu but the scenario apparently did not improve.

Aside from China, Hongkong also suffered a lower figure with 5,424 tourists visiting Cebu within the same period.

At that time, the bus hostage crisis at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila the previous year was seen as having continued to affect the number of Hong Kong tourists coming to the Philippines, including Cebu.

English for Japanese

Meanwhile, Montecillo said DOT is targeting Japanese nationals to study English in Cebu.

Schools offering ESL or English as Second Language courses here have attracted Korean students for the past years.

DOT records last year showed that Koreans continue to rank first in the top 10 visitors in Cebu, making up 32.48 percent of the total number of tourists from January to May 2011.

They posted a 23.15-growth rate or 107,217 tourists from last year’s 87,059.

DOT had recognized the 27 weekly flights from Incheon to Cebu and 10 weekly flights Busan to Cebu as having contributed to the increase of the Korean market.

DOT also recognized the 19 members of the Korean Travel Agency Association in Cebu, which helped promote the province directly to Korea.

This time around, the DOT wants to attract more visitors from Japan by capitalizing on the ESL schools.

"ESL brings in more tourists in learning the English language. This time, we will be targetting the Japanese," Montecillo said.

She said DOT will be sitting down with ESL schools to come up with a mechanism to carry out the initiative. – (FREEMAN)