By 叠谤辞苍迟毛听贬.听尝补肠蝉补尘补苍补,听Reporter
PRIORITIZING the Chinese tourist market, which has long been a major source of travelers for the Philippines, could boost the country鈥檚 tourism recovery, travel companies said on Monday.
These sentiments came after Tourism Secretary Christina G.聽Frasco called for the lifting of the visa cap on Chinese nationals after China dropped to seventh place as of March this year from being the Philippines鈥 second top market in 2019.
鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping [to see more] Chinese tourists鈥 soon. Recently we haven鈥檛 had any clients from there yet, even though they used to be a major market for us,鈥 said Cheryl Bueno, ticketing manager at Panda Travel Service, Inc., in Filipino via phone call.
Incoming traffic from China is critical for local travel agencies, hotels, and tour operators, she added.
Roberto Z. Zozobrado, president of the Tourism Congress of the Philippines, said that the hurdle to getting more Chinese back is the visa quota implemented by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
鈥淓ven if China has now opened their doors, the DFA is not issuing as many visas as we would want them to. They issue only a hundred visas a day to Chinese nationals,鈥 he told 大象传媒 in a Viber message.
The Department of Tourism (DoT) aims to have two million Chinese visit the Philippines this year, which would require about 6,818 visas to be issued per day.
In 2019, there were more than 1.7 million arrivals from China, making up 22.2% of total arrivals to the country. This translated to about P2.33 billion in tourism receipts, according to DoT.
鈥淭he Chinese market is important for our tourism recovery because, when they鈥檙e here, they buy everything. They鈥檙e very big spenders. That鈥檚 the reason we鈥檙e trying to get them back,鈥 Mr. Zozobrado said.
MUFG Global Markets Research said in its 2023 ASEAN tourism outlook report that China鈥檚 reopening is expected to boost tourism in Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines.
鈥淭he boost from China will likely be significant and outweigh outbound travel,鈥 it said. 鈥淭he improvements from tourism, further boosted by travel from China, will likely benefit all tourism-related sectors.鈥
The research firm predicted gross travel receipts globally to increase this year to $6 to 8 billion, from just $4 billion in 2022.
Ms. Frasco said in a statement that the Philippines stands to lose over $2.51 billion in revenues if the difficulty in obtaining visas is not immediately addressed. She is in talks with the DFA to up the visa quota for Chinese nationals.
Meanwhile, the Philippine tourism industry has prepared long and hard for the rise in activity, according to Mr. Zozobrado.
鈥淲e were able to accommodate the surge of Chinese pre-pandemic. We鈥檙e equipped for it now. People are more aware of the importance of recovery efforts, be it large hotels or small and medium-sized enterprises, for both foreigners and domestic travel,鈥 he said.
