Inbound Chinese tourists from mainland China could grow between 2 million and 5 million more if the Philippines waives its visa requirement, a member of the Philippine Travel Agencies Association—Travel and Tour Expo (PTAA-TTE) said.
“If we really want to grow inbound tourists, the visa requirement for foreigners should be waived, not only for China but also [for] India and other nearby countries,” said Ryan Uy, Philippine Airlines vice-president for sales.
Indian tourists, the airline official observed, had been doubling in arrival to the country during the past five years. “But we are not enjoying the full potentials of tourists who want to come to the country because of the visa prerequisite,” he said.
“We suggest that the government [just] provide temporary visa-free [requirement] for visitors from China and India for three or five months as an experiment, and we can guarantee the volume of tourists from these places would more than double or triple,” Uy said.
Patty Chiong, executive vice president of the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA), for her part, supported Uy’s call, saying Thailand welcomes 6 million tourists from China a year “because they waive the visa requirement.”
China promised to send to the country some 2 million tourists a year. But so far, only more than 700,000 tourists have come because of our visa restrictions, Uy added.
Last year 145 million mainland Chinese tourists left their country for foreign lands. It is estimated that today, there are 400 million Chinese who count themselves as belonging to the middle class.
Taiwan, which waved the visa for Filipinos in 2017 for nine months and then extended it for another nine months has also appealed to the government to reciprocate their gesture.
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (Teco) Director Alfred Y. H. Wang of the Economic Division, said the number of Filipino tourists who visited Taiwan in the last quarter of last year almost doubled compared to the same three-month period in 2016.
Official data from Taiwan’s tourism bureau, showed that Filipino tourist arrivals in Taiwan increased by 68.59 percent to 290,784 last year, from 172,475 in 2016.
He noted that Taiwan intends to get 90,000 tourists for each quarter of 2018, hitting around 360,000 Filipino tourist arrivals.
“If the Philippines could reciprocate our visa-free offer, Taiwanese visitors would more than double and more investors would be encouraged to come, Former Teco Representative Gary Song-Huann Lin, said.
The PTAA is looking to break foot traffic record when it holds the 26th edition of the TTE this year at the SMC Convention Center.
The organization expects more than 135,000 Filipinos to troop to the three-day event, with more than 400 exhibitors participating in February.
“Travel is no longer a luxury among our countrymen, said TTE Chairman Marlene Dado Jante, adding the expo will be the only time during the year that drop down travel services and packages to most destinations locally and abroad will be available.
The TTE is supported by the Department of Tourism, Tourism Promotion Board, Philippine Airlines, Mabuhay Miles and Citibank.
Image credits: Roy Domingo