THE Department of Tourism (DOT) underscored the importance of Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions (MICE) events to hasten the recovery of the country’s travel trade industry.
This developed as the agency and its marketing arm, the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), welcomed the announcement by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) of the Philippines’s hosting of WTTC Global Summit from October 26-28 this year.
WTTC President and Chief Executive Officer Gloria Guevara made the formal announcement on Wednesday at the closing ceremony of the WTTC Global Summit in Cancun, Mexico. The Cancun summit was supposed to have been held last year, but was postponed due to the global Covid-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions.
“I would like to formally announce our next host, the Philippines, and I am inviting you all to continue with the recovery of our sector in Manila. We are very dedicated to ensure safety, and we will continue to monitor the situation carefully. I look forward to seeing you all,” Guevara announced.
In a news statement, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat extended a warm invitation to its partners, as the country looked forward to hosting the upcoming summit, which will help restart the tourism industry and further boost its strategies to position the country as the MICE hub in Asia.
“We, your Philippine partners in tourism, are eager to share our hopes, dreams and plans for our industry, [and are] ready to do our share in the global effort to overcome and break down barriers in this new dynamic, and unpredictable tourism landscape,” said Romulo Puyat after Guevara’s announcement.
In 2018, it launched an ambitious MICE Roadmap 2030 aimed at increasing the country’s MICE revenues to some P25 billion by 2030, from P4.6 billion in 2016. Its targets have been somewhat derailed, however, by the Covid-19 travel restrictions around the world.
“The Philippines’s hosting of WTTC Global Summit will create an avenue for the private sector and local tourism industry stakeholders to consider bigger markets and present an immense opportunity to network and link up with international partners,” explained TPB Chief Operating Officer Anthonette C. Velasco-Allones, separately.
It will also allow the Philippines to demonstrate its commitment to health and safety, environmental sustainability, and local community engagement in tourist destinations, she said.
The DOT chief added: “Through our determination and dedication to this sector, tourism will once again be the driver of socioeconomic growth, and improve the lives of millions of people around the world while championing sustainability. We will recover as one, and we will travel once again.”
The WTTC Global Summit is an annual event that gathers some 1,000 participants composed of chief executive officers, presidents and chairpersons of the largest and most prominent international travel and tourism companies from airlines, hotels and resorts, travel agencies, tour companies, global distribution system, transportation, and allied enterprises; as well as Tourism Ministers and officials from international organizations, such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
The WTTC forecast that close to 198 million jobs in travel and tourism may have been lost last year, with world economies suffering a $5.34-trillion reduction in gross domestic product, due to Covid-19.