DOT: Philippines and Austria eye stronger tourism links

CEBU, Philippines —  The Philippines is strengthening its tourism ties with Austria in a bid to capture more visitors from this emerging European source market, the Department of Tourism reported.

Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco recently engaged in a working visit to Austrian State Secretary for Tourism Susanne Kraus-Winkler in Vienna, Austria, to explore ways to further strengthen the relations between the two nations especially in tourism.

Frasco noted the huge opportunity in the Austrian market, citing the impressive 89% recovery rate of visitor arrivals from Austria to the Philippines in 2023 at 13,180, vis-à-vis the 14,840 arrivals recorded in 2019 pre-COVID-19 pandemic.

Interestingly, the Filipino community makes up the largest Asian community in Austria, with approximately 30,000 Filipinos, and as many as 60,000 Filipino-Austrian nationals.

“Following our discussions in Manila during your visit last year, we wish to reiterate the interest of the Philippines to sign a Memorandum of Tourism Cooperation to formalize our efforts to benchmark best tourism practices on sustainable tourism, enhance our people-to-people exchanges, and further enhance our frameworks on human capital development, among others,” said Frasco.

The largest employment sectors for Filipinos in Austria, accordingly, are in tourism and care, with almost a quarter of the Filipino diaspora in Austria currently working in the tourism sector.

Kraus-Winkler likewise opened up about the “working holiday program” provided for in the memorandum of understanding that was signed in Manila between the Austrian and Philippine governments in October 2023.

"Tourism generally benefits from working holiday programs, as young people want to gain experience in tourism worldwide. Experience has shown that young people often also want to explore the country where they are working and go on vacation during their stay of up to one year. We want to further expand the good cooperation between Austria and the Philippines in the field of tourism and promote the mobility of young people. We are looking forward to the talks on the rapid implementation of a working holiday program, as we were recently able to conclude with the USA," said Kraus-Winkler.

Working holiday programs combine vacations with practical work experience abroad to enable young people to finance part of their stay.

Through this program, they can enter into temporary employment arrangements in the destination country and also make use of educational institutions.

The “workation” program is aimed at people aged between 18 and 30 years old who want to broaden their understanding of other countries and cultures. Foreign language skills are an important aspect of a successful start to working life abroad.

The discussions between the tourism leaders also tackled concerns on sustainability and the pivotal role of digitalization of tourism on the economies of the Philippines and Austria.(CEBU NEWS)