Philippines records 27% hike in Indian tourists from Jan-May 2015

The Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippines has welcomed about 31,245 Indian tourists during the first five months of this year, recording an increase of 27.40 per cent, compared with 24,525 tourist arrivals from India from January to May 2014. The destination also plans to welcome tourists to the Philippine Shopping Festival 2015 which will be held from October 23 to November 8, in association with the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA). This was informed by Verna Covar-Buensuceso, Director and Officer-in-charge, Market Development Group, Tourism Development Sector, Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippines, while speaking to the press at the recently concluded multi-city roadshow in New Delhi post travelling to Nagpur, Chandigarh and Lucknow.

Comprising 11 trade partners from Philippines, this sixth roadshow by DOT Philippines was the biggest-ever delegation to India. The roadshows included interactive B2B sessions, education programmes and workshops and saw participation of over 300 key tour operators, MICE and up-market leisure operators.

“We aim to achieve 100,000 Indian tourist arrivals by 2017,” said Glen Agustin, Chief Tourism Operations Officer, Market Development Group, DOT, Philippines. He elaborated that they conducted a familiarisation trip for Kolkata-based tour operators wherein participants interacted with their B2B counterparts in Philippines. This has yielded excellent results and the tourism has been booming from the Kolkata since then, he said. Moreover, about 600 tour operators and counting have been certified under the Philippines Specialist Program (PSP) which has indeed assisted tour operators to lure tourists from Tier-II cities as well. As per the trend this year, Indians are staying for seven days on an average and spending about USD 120 a day. Though the length of stay has increased, we look forward to increase the tourism spend as well, highlighted Agustin.