DOT eyes more Chinese tourists

MANILA, Philippines - The government wants more Chinese tourists to visit the country despite ongoing tensions over the Spratlys.   

Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said he has sought the help of China National Tourism Administration head Shao Oiwei to encourage more Chinese tourists to travel to the Philippines.

“I asked him to make the numbers grow,” he said.“Right now we have 187,000 Chinese tourists from the mainland, not counting Hong Kong or Macau or Taiwan.”       

Lim said Department of Tourism (DOT) data showed 740,000 South Koreans and 600,000 Chinese come to the country annually.

“Hopefully, by the end of six years we would have substantially more tourists coming from China,” he said.         

Lim said more Chinese must visit the Philippines, considering the closer historic ties and the fact that the country is closer to China than Japan or South Korea.

Shao recognized the country’s advantages and the need to lure more tourists from China, he added.

The Chinese spend some $45 billion to $50 billion on travel, while Chinese authorities expect the number of Chinese outbound tourists to grow to 100 million by 2020.

The tourism secretary has visited China several times and led a tourism mission to China before his upcoming road show to North America.

Last October in Shanghai, Lim invited the chairman of Jin Jiang, largest hotel group in China, to invest in the country and build 3-star (budget), not 5-star, hotels because of the Chinese tourists’ preference for moderately priced hotels.

The DOT has re-launched its Balikbayan program to encourage overseas Filipinos to come home, even without incentives, especially with President Aquino declaring 2011 to 2016 as “Pinoy Homecoming Years.”

Overseas Filipinos and former Filipinos who are already residing in other countries have always been a significant contributor to the Philippines’ visitor arrivals every year, accounting for 22.8 percent, or 688,855 visitors in 2009, from top markets like the US, Canada, Australia, UK, and Japan, among others.

The DOT has set an aggressive arrival target for 2011 and looks at Filipinos permanently residing abroad, particularly those based in North America, as one of the key market segments that will help achieve the 25 percent growth in arrivals.