Travel industry group calls for more infra development

Marketing how much more “fun” it can be in the Philippines will not be enough for government to meet its tourism industry targets before the end of the Aquino administration, the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) said.

While it supports the Department of Tourism’s (DoT) new slogan, the travel industry group said developing the infrastructure near popular destinations would be more effective in attracting more visitors from abroad.

““The PTAA, as a leading partner of the government, will remain steadfast in its role to promote and assist in the development of Philippine tourism,” the group’s president Aileen Clemente said in a statement.

She said that along with the new DoT campaign, it is also important to improve the country’s airports and other tourism infrastructure.

“Hopefully this can be tied together with other initiatives that are being undertaken by the government to further improve the Philippine tourism industry,” Clemente said.

She called on the government to implement the recommendations made in the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) drafted last year that called for the redevelopment of major airports, including the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Also listed as priority projects under the development plan were airports in Cebu, Clark, Davao, Puerto Princesa, Iloilo, Laoag and Zamboanga.

Under the NTDP, an improved aviation landscape would result in more flight frequencies and an expansion of travel destinations being offered by airlines.

The DoT will introduce the new “It’s more fun in the Philippines” campaign internationally over the next four months and expects to have 4.2 million tourist arrivals this year.

For the first 10 months of 2011, tourist arrivals were up 11.96 percent to 3.18 million as compared with the same period in 2010.

The bulk of the tourists came from Korea, Taiwan and China along with emerging markets India, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

By 2016, the government is targeting as many as 10 million foreigners to visit the Philippines to bring in much-needed tourist dollars. This target is more than three times the number of tourists that visited the Philippines in 2010, the year President Aquino assumed office.

The PTAA has more than 500 travel and tourism member companies that have operations in key cities in the country.