Pagdanganan said that studies made by the World Tourism Organization (WTO) showed that Chinese outbound tourists could increase to 130 million in the next 16 years.

He expressed hopes on the prospect of serving a market that stands to become the largest source of outbound tourists. He points to the Philippines’ Approved Destination Status (ADS) accorded by the Chinese government since 1993 as major advantage in luring Chinese tourists to the country.

The secretary said the DoT and its partners are specifically targeting three of China’s major business centers: Beijing and Shanghai in the east, and Guangdong in the south. The three areas, he said, have generated the highest number of outbound tourists primarily due to stable local economies, rising personal and disposable incomes, and increased urbanization as manisfested by their improved facilities for travel.

To penetrate that market, the DoT named the following cooperative measures as a means to augment the country’s position as a preferred destination: Tour packages, brochures, promotional destination videos, CD-ROMs, Mandarin translation of the DoT website, Mandarin- speaking tour guides and airport personnel, and improved visa relations.

Also included in the lineup of activities are sales missions in Beijing and Shanghai, participation in Chinese travel fairs, as well as sponsorship of familiarization trips for Chinese tour operators, travel agents, media representatives, and key officials to the Philippines.

Pagdanganan’s sales blitz to China is part of the ambitious DoT plan to bring five million tourists into the country by 2010.

The economic impact of the DoT program and projection is the creation of five million new jobs and $5 billion in tourist receipts. The study is based on an average daily expenditure of $100 per tourist with an average length of stay of 10 days.

Pagdanganan said a contract mart between the Chinese tour wholesalers and Filipino ground handlers, and a press conference with the Chinese press are part of the activities scheduled for tonight.

Also leaving with Pagdanganan are members of the media and a large group of travel executives.

Meanwhile, to help the Philippine economy and boost Filipino-Chinese relationship, Cebu Pacific launched a campaign to attract more tourists from China and opened flights to and from Xiamen.

As part of the promotion, Cebu Pacific recently took to Xiamen several top Filipino editors, columnists, and writers to see for themselves the attraction of that ancient Chinese city and the prospects of more Chinese visiting Manila.

Alan Lam, general manager of CP Air (China) Inc. GSA China, said "considering that China is our biggest market and that no less than President Arroyo herself wants to tap the emerging market, Cebu Pacific has been offering special tour packages to be able to attract more Chinese tourists."

In a letter to Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr., Lam said: "Unfortunately, while we are about to succeed, immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport have become overeager in profiling incoming Chinese passengers resulting to arbitrary exclusion last June 15 of four passengers and last June 18 of 13 passengers. We learned that passengers of the airline have been excluded due to unclear, unfounded, and arbitrary reasons by immigration officers."

Lam appealed to Fernandez for his personal intercession for the protection of Chinese tourists who are visiting Manila from Xiamen. He suggested to Fernandez to hire Chinese interpreters at the airport to avoid unnecesary deportation of Chinese tourists which is becoming a black mark in our campaign to bring in more Chinese tourists and help our economy and the Filipino-Chinese relationship.

Marketing game plan

The Department of Tourism (DoT) is opening a tourism office in Beijing, China tomorrow, Wednesday, July 21, as part of a marketing game plan to boost tourist traffic from China, Secretary Roberto M. Pagdanganan said yesterday.

This tourism office will take care of promoting the country’s exotic spots as well as devise advertisements that would bring in tourists and thereby hit DoT’s target level of 2.5 million tourist arrivals this year.

Pagdanganan said the opening of tourism offices to drum up interest for the country arose from a series of meeting and group discussions on what to do to promote the country.

Saying that "tourism is a marketing game," the DoT chief said that the country is also biding to woo organizers to have their conventions here. "Twenty years ago, we had the first convention center."

Pagdanganan said a boom in tourism will create jobs, one of the center pieces of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s 10-point program for the next six years. "One tourist creates one job."

Aside from the Beijing office, the DoT is setting up tourism offices in Paris, France, to do the marketing for southern Europe; Frankfurt, Germany, to take care of eastern Europe; and London, England, for the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries.

"These tourism offices will double as marketing offices" to showcase the country’s scenic spots and unique events and diving spots. "We are segmenting the market to appeal to special kinds of tourists."

Pagdanganan said the entry of more tourists will immensely benefit the peso vis-à-vis the dollar as he cited the strength of the Thai baht on the back of its 10 million tourists.