Arrivals of Taiwanese tourists into the Philippines are expected to improve by 5 percent next year to 112,000 from 106,000 in 2009 encouraged by the opening of the gaming facilities in the Newport City and new products that the Philippine travel industry will be offering.

This was bared by Philippine tourism attaché Ireneo H. Reyes of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) to visiting Filipino journalists noting that the Taiwanese travel market is starting to recover from the impact of the global financial crisis and the AH1N1 virus.

The October period, however, suffered a substantial 31 percent drop because of the typhoons that hit the Philippines.

Reyes said that while Taiwanese outbound travel to the Philippines dropped by 14.4 percent in the January-October period this year over the same period last year, but the decline is expected to be tempered as the November-December period comes in.

Arrivals of Taiwanese tourists in the November-December period is expected to post between 5 to 6 percent increase over the same period last year.

He said there are talks with the operator of the Star Cruises, which is owned by the Alliance Global Inc. to promote tourism in the Philippines by possibly including Manila as one of their stops. Star Cruises make stops also in Kaoshiung and Keelung and could possibly bring in tourists also to Manila by calling in the Manila port.

“The Newport City is a welcome development as it offers new tourist attraction with its Resorts World, a gaming facility located in Pasay City.

According to Reyes, discussions are being undertaken with the Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific to help in the promotion.

Reyes admitted that the Ampatuan massacre, which made world headlines including Taipei, has affected the Philippine image but the $70 million bank robbery in Kaoshiung has overshadowed the Philippine story.

Reyes said that in partnership with Taiwanese travel agencies and airlines, there would be new products.