Russian tourists biggest spenders

Russians are the biggest spenders among tourists visiting the Philippines, paying out a minimum of $1,000 for each day of their stay here, according to a travel agency official.

Robert Joseph Lim, president of the National Independent Travel Agencies, said Russian businessmen and tourists prefer “high-end” hotels and food.

“They go to hotels like Shangri-la and other five-star hotels and even here, they expect to be served the expensive caviar,” Lim told the weekly radio program “Para sa Iyo Bayan” of Vice President Noli de Castro.

According to Lim, a tourist stays in the country for a minimum of three days.

He said that Japanese tourists spend a minimum of $500 a day while Chinese tourists spend a minimum of $80 a day. Chinese tourists may spend more depending on the economic background.

Koreans are also big spenders, Lim said, but did not give the amount they spend for each day of their visit here, noting that most of them come on a group tour package and use Korean bus companies and stay in Korean-operated hotels.

“The Koreans control their own (facilities), from tour packages, bus, restaurants, spas and hotels,” he added.

He noted that the government’s target of 3.3 million tourist arrivals this year might not be reached because of the downgrading of the Philippine aviation safety standards by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“Two years ago, it was 2.8 million tourist arrivals and now 3.1 million. The DOT (Department of Tourism) said the target is 3.3 million for 2008. If it were not for the US advisory and downgrading, we can achieve 3.5 million tourist arrivals. We were stunned by the downgrading,” Lim said.