The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Azer N. Parrocha / Philippines News Agency
Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo will travel to Macau this week to meet with Chinese businessmen and invite more Chinese tourists to visit the Philippines.
“I will be meeting with foreign investors and Chinese tourists. I would be asking them to come to the Philippines,” Teo said in a chance interview.
Her statement came after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands, ruled on July 12 that China’s nine-dash-line claim to the disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) has no basis.
Teo said without elaborating that she was invited by the businessmen to meet with them—a move interpreted as the Chinese market’s continued interest in the Philippines as a tourist destination.
“They would like to come to the Philippines. This is a group of Chinese [who are] going to meet in Macau, and they would like me to be there,” Teo said.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) earlier made the assurance that the local tourism industry would be able to insulate itself from the negative effects of the ongoing territorial row between Manila and Beijing, and of the recent ruling, and that these have no adverse impact on tourist inflow in the Philippines.
In an earlier interview, Tourism Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. said partners in both the Philippines and China continue to work closely together to ensure that two-way traffic is not disrupted.
He also said the DOT employs a consistent strategy of maintaining “an optimum mix of source markets” to withstand or help compensate for a possible decline in tourist arrivals from one market.
Another tourism official assured that a large number of Chinese tourists set to the Philippines will still be visiting the country, as it is set to welcome on Sept. 23 and 24 the cruise ship Legend of the Seas, which will carry 2,076 Chinese tourists.
Tourism Director for Public Affairs and Advocacy Czarina Zara Loyola said the cruise ship will make a port of call at Manila and Boracay.
DOT data showed that China is the country’s third top tourism market with 285,348 visitors, making up 11.33 percent of the 2.51 million foreign tourists who visited the Philippines from January to May this year.
China also posted the highest tourism growth of 80.79 percent.