MANILA, Philippines — Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat on Tuesday said she would speak with tourism industry stakeholders to recalibrate the agency’s efforts this year following travel restrictions imposed on China, the country’s second source of foreign visitors, and its special administrative regions.
In a radio interview, Puyat said the Department of Tourism (DOT) might not achieve its target of 9.2 million foreign tourists this year, under the National Tourism Development Plan that the agency has adopted.
“Maybe with the target for this year, we need to talk with our stakeholders, because we are in consultation with them, if we have to revise our targets,” the secretary said.
“Of course, our tourism arrivals will be affected. But as we always say: Safety first. We want to ensure first the safety of the Filipinos and our other tourists who want to come to the Philippines. We want to reassure all our tourists who do not fall under these restrictions that they are free to come to the Philippines,” she added.
Although the DOT was still finalizing the figures, Puyat said it achieved its target of 8.2 million foreign tourists last year.Based on DOT data, there were 1.74 million tourists from China, Macau and Hong Kong for the first 11 months of 2018.
In January and February last year, there were more than 323,000 visitors from the three areas.
Last Feb. 2, the Philippine government imposed a travel ban for all foreigners coming from China, Hong Kong and Macau in an effort to stop the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease.