Increased flights, inland travels show domestic tourism growth

CEBU, Philippines - The increased number of flight frequencies for local destination and the growing number of land transportation routes to different tourism hotspots in the Philippines show the interest among Filipinos to travel within the country.

Hotels, Resorts, and Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC) president Hans Hauri said business hotels in Cebu, for instance, has seen a significant growth for domestic guests even within the Lenten Week unlike in the past.

Hauri, who is also the area general manager for Marco Polo chain in the Philippines and the general manager for Marco Polo Plaza Cebu, said for his hotel alone, occupancy rate within the weeklong Lenten season reached to 70 to 75 percent in average.

Occupancy rate within the city hotels during the season has not been as encouraging when compared to the previous three years.

 â€œWe see reflection of good growth from the domestic travelers, better than last year or some two years ago,” he said.

According to Hauri, aside from heightened promotions for the hot tourist destinations in the Philippines as strengthened by the Department of Tourism (DOT) campaign “It’s More Fun in the Philippines,” the attractive offers of airlines augmented the interest of Filipinos to travel within the country.

 â€œThe domestic market has grown, because the supply has grown,” Hauri said referring to the massive promotions of different charming destinations in the country, which also got interest from the international travel market.

He said, however, while the Philippines, Cebu in particular, has enjoyed the strong mobility of Filipinos traveling within the country, the cheaper airline rate offers specifically for international destinations, also post a threat to the domestic travel.

Although this is good for Filipinos to have opportunity to travel abroad, this has slightly affected domestic tourism, he said.

Nevertheless, he cited this threat has been offset by the wider choice of air transportation schedules and destinations of which fares are also cheaper.

Land transportation services have also improved not just the number of routes, but also in terms of the convenience in traveling inland and through sea transports.

The Philippine government, through DOT, has raised its domestic tourists target by almost 50 percent in the next three years.

The DOT is now targeting 56.1 million local travelers by 2016 from the previous target of 35.5 million. In 2011, the Philippines recorded 37.5 million domestic travelers.

Given this positive growth in domestic travel, DOT secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. recently announced DOT raised the 2016 domestic tourism target.

This prompted the government to add 37,000 more rooms in the destination clusters, including Cebu.

While the DOT has surpassed the initial target on domestic tourism, it however, failed to achieve the 4.6 million foreign tourist arrival target in 2012. Only about 4.2 million foreign tourists visited the country last year.

Tourism sector prime mover and advocate Bobby Joseph said that the Philippines should develop complementary activities and good infrastructure in order to sustain the tourism growth.

He said this will promote not only one-shot deal for tourists to visit a destination, but make them “addicted” to the country and make it their favorite leisure and vacation destination.

 Joseph, who is the chairman for National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (Naitas), said a program that encourages tourists to spend more should be intensified in order to increase tourism receipts and revenues. /JMD (FREEMAN)