The Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) is pushing for more Taiwanese tourist arrivals by boosting the country’s meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) industry.

Antonio I. Basilio, MECO resident representative and managing director, said MECO’s Tourism Center is aggressively marketing the Philippines’ meetings and convention industry to Taiwan ’s professional conference organizers and destination management companies.

“We want the Philippines to have top-of-mind recall among Taiwanese businessmen and prospective tourists who are planning to hold conventions, meetings and events abroad,” said Basilio.

He said the aggressive push was needed to offset the softer tourism market brought by the slower global economy that has also been felt in Taiwan.

Last year, the Philippines welcomed 3.13 million visitors from all over the world, up 1.5 percent over 2007’s 3.09 million arrivals. Taiwan is one of the Philippines’ leading tourism markets, and MECO is confident that it will attract more than 132,500 arrivals from Taiwan this year, or up six percent compared to last year. The country’s top tourist markets were Korea (611,629), the United States (578,246), Japan (359,306), China (163,689), Australia (121,514), Taiwan (118,782), Hong Kong (116,653), Canada (102,381), Singapore (100,177) and the United Kingdom (87,422).

Aside from pushing the MICE sector, new tour packages will be launched, while niche markets such as health/medical, education and sports tourism will be further developed according to Basilio. He cited the English as a Second Language Study Tour as a particularly-attractive program to younger Taiwanese.

Basilio said MECO promoted Philippine corporate and leisure packages at the recent Taipei International Tourism Exposition, a business-to-business industry fair held at the Taipei World Trade Center.

“The Philippine pavilion housed the booths of carriers offering direct flights to the Philippines like Philippine Airlines, China Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Trans Asia and EVA Airways. Taiwan and Philippine-based travel agencies and tour operators were also represented at the event.”

MECO has also tapped tourism prospects outside of Taipei. Basilio said MECO introduced the “New World Tour” package comprising three Philippine destinations to tour operators based in Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan.

Basilio also cited the additional flights between Taiwan and the Philippines, with Trans Asia Airways commencing charter flight services from Taipei to Kalibo, Aklan starting last May 27.