Philippine pushed as shopping destination for Chinese tourists

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is being positioned as a shopping destination for Chinese tourists as the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) recently held a travel sale event in China.

TPB said it recently held the Philippine Destination Travel Sale in Xiamen, where buyers from the port city and surrounding areas participated.

“Spearheaded by the Tourism Promotions Board Philippines together with the Department of Tourism Shanghai and in partnership with SM Xiamen, the week-long event is in support of the “Malling: It’s More Fun In The Philippines” campaign that aims to promote the Philippines to potential tourists from the Fujian province,” TPB said.

The event featured presentations from Philippine hotels as well as onsite consumer activation activities such as food tasting, wearing of local costume, dance competition and basic beat box tutorial.

In May, the Department of Tourism (DOT) partnered with SM Supermalls to launch the Malling is More Fun in the Philippines campaign, which aims to position the Philippines as a shopping destination.

Based on data from the DOT in 2017, shopping was the number one activity done by tourists visiting the country, with 51.60 percent of tourists taking part in it.

Shopping is also where tourists spend a large amount of expenditure on, as it amounts to $20.90 of the average daily expenditure per capita in 2017 of $125.65.

DOT earlier emphasized that building up shopping tourism in the country is part of the equation to spur economic growth, create millions of jobs, livelihoods and enterprises and help the Philippines become a globally recognized quality destination.

As part of the campaign, the partnership launched the Juan Fun Adventure caravan in October, which promotes some of the country’s lesser known destinations through immerse photo pod installation, where mall-goers can pose and take pictures.

“SM Supermalls and the DOT proudly present this immersive photo pod installation, which we hope will encourage the public to venture outdoors and discover the country’s myriad tourist attractions,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said.

“At the same time, we also expect that this experiential project will create further awareness for the DOT’s long-term advocacy, the promotion of sustainable travel,” she added.

The pilot project was launched at SM City San Lazaro in Manila and featured six travel pods with tourist destinations such as Calle Crisologo in Vigan, Mayon Volcano in Albay, Puerto Princesa Underground River in Palawan, the Sirao Farm in Cebu, Davao Farm and Falls in Mindanao.