‘Philippines should target high-end Indian tourists’

MANILA, Philippines — With India’s President Ram Nath Kovind on a state visit in the country, Sen. Richard Gordon proposed that the Philippines should work to attract high-end tourists from India.

“This is a good time for us to get them,” the senator said over the weekend.

He said India, which has the second largest population in the world, is rising as a country, so the government should make sure that the Philippines gets more investments from the Indian president’s visit.

“The government really has to make sure that we can get some more business from the state visit,” he said.

Kovind is in the country until today for a visit that coincides with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and India.

 He and President Duterte held a bilateral meeting last Frday to discuss areas of mutual interest, including political, economic, cultural and people-to-people engagement.

Kovind is also scheduled to meet with members of the Indian community in the Philippines and the Filipino beneficiaries of the Mahaveer Philippine Foundation, an organization that helps give the Jaipur Foot to amputees. The Jaipur Foot is a rubber-based prosthetic leg designed and developed by Indian sculptor Ram Chander Sharma.

Kovind is the third Indian president to undertake a state visit to the Philippines since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1949.