TravTalk India Online Magazine
Around 20 suppliers from The Philippines connected with 120+ travel agents from across India, resulting in more than 3000 B2B meetings at Focus Philippines 2018 in Goa.
Kanchan Nath
The Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippines recently conducted ‘Focus Philippines’ at the Lalit Golf & Spa Resort in Goa, for leading travel agents across India. MA Teresita C Daza, Ambassador, Republic of the Philippines, said, “Focus Philippines provides travel operators with an opportunity to conduct exclusive, one-on-one meetings and gain a better insight on the destination so as to enable them to further customise their product offerings based on exhibitor inputs, thereby taking Indian arrivals to the Philippines to the next level. Amidst the numerous B2B meetings, briefings on the Philippines with destination packages were also highlighted.”
Elaborating on the trend of growing tourism across the globe, she said, “As per the UNWTO Tourism Barometer International, tourist arrivals worldwide grew by a remarkable 7 per cent in 2017 to reach a total of 1,322 million. This strong momentum is expected to continue in 2018 at a rate of 4-5 per cent. Asia Pacific saw an almost 6 per cent growth, contributing to about 324 million tourists. Two regions aptly contributed to an increase in tourist arrivals to South Asia and SE Asia, thus including India and the Philippines as well. If the trend is to travel, it’s an opportunity for us to be able to provide accessibility, amenities and attractions for the same.”
It’s always more fun in Philippines
On tourist arrivals to the Philippines, Daza mentioned that in 2017, some 6.6 million foreign tourists visited the country, marking an unprecedented growth for the country’s tourism industry. She explained, “As per a secondary source, the average tourism growth in Asia Pacific was 6 per cent, 8 per cent in Southeast Asia and 11 per cent for the Philippines. This can be attributed to improved air routes, cruise liners, improved infrastructure development and travel facilitation in the Philippines. The greatest asset of our country is our people who make visitors feel welcome.”
Daza is hopeful about direct flights between India and the Philippines. She said, “With some ongoing negotiations, we have heard that PAL is interested in resuming flights from Manila to Delhi and Mumbai. We expect the operations to begin either by the end of 2018 or first quarter of 2019.” In terms of visas, the policies of the past remain. “Those who have valid visas can come in the Philippines for a short-stay for tourism purposes. We now require people to apply 10 days in advance for visa and within eight working days, we are hopeful that they will be issued,” she affirmed.
Dakila F Gonzales, Head, Office of Product and Market Development – India, Department of Tourism Philippines, said, “The inspiration behind the creation of the event is the huge increase in tourist arrivals of Indian nationals to the Philippines. In 2017, we had reached almost 107,000 arrivals from India. With a tremendous growth rate of 22 per cent in Indian arrivals, we hope to hit 130,000 arrivals from India in 2018.”
Gonzales believes that Focus Philippines is an ideal platform where the interests of partners from both the countries would merge. He said, “The quality agents of India met with our valued DMCs from the Philippines. Realising further potential to increase this growth, we want to stay committed to our current partners and giving them more knowledge on new segments of Philippines tourism. At the same time, we want to establish new Philippines specialists and make them aware of how compatible Philippines as a destination is for India’s leisure travel.”
