…while TPB joins travel trade fair in Shanghai

MANILA, Philippines — The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) targets to attract more Chinese tourists into the country as it participates in a travel trade fair in China.

The TPB said it joined the International Tourism Borse (ITB) in Shanghai held from May 15 to 17 at the Shanghai East Asia Exhibition Center.

Apart from its exhibition booth in the ITB, the TPB also held a tourism product presentation in Ningbo for travel trade, attended by 11 private firms and more than 80 buyers.

This is in line with attracting more Chinese tourists into the country.

“This year, TPB targets to hit 1.5 million Chinese travelers and an additional increase of 19.5 percent by 2022 upon completion of all tourism development plans, which will highlight all the natural wonders of the Philippines,” TPB said.

Last year, over 1.2 million Chinese tourists visited the Philippines, making it the country’s second largest source market.

In the first quarter of the year, a total of 463,804 Chinese tourists arrived in the country, a 24.8 percent rise from 371,429 in the same period last year.

Based on the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP), the Philippines is targeting to draw in 8.2 million foreign arrivals.

In the first three months of the year, the country welcomed a total of 2.2 million foreign tourists, a 7.59 percent increase from the 2.04 million arrivals in the same period last year.

“The DOT is working on enhancing our tourism products and tourism infrastructure to entice tourists to choose the Philippines as their next destination,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat earlier said.

Despite the high growth in arrivals from China, Korea remains the country’s top source market with a total of 519,584 arrivals from 477,087 last year.

In third spot is the US, registering 293,780 visitors, up by 3.1 percent from last year.

Completing the top 12 markets for the three-month period are: Japan, 177,769; Taiwan, 77,908; Australia, 73,147; Canada, 72,352; United Kingdom, 53,402; Singapore, 39,484; Malaysia, 37,651; India, 36,275; and Germany, 33,725.