Philippines-China tourism deal

The Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT) and its counterpart Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China signed an Implementa-tion Program on Tourism Cooperation on Wednesday, Jan. 4, in Beijing, to push for bilateral tourism cooperation between the Philippines and China. DOT Secretary Christina Frasco signed the Implementation Program on Tourism Cooperation together with People’s

Republic of China Culture and Tourism Min-ister Hu Heping in the presence of Philippine President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. and PRC President Xi Jinping.
Relations between the Philippines and China have stretched for centuries despite disputes placed under the spotlight while continuing to maintain coopera-tion in other areas such as trade and culture. Before

Spain even colonized the Philippines, China acknowledged the existence of several pre-colonial Phil-ippine kingdoms where even the Chinese emperor received Filipino datus, rajahs and sultans. In 1946, when the Philippines finally became independent, we established diplomatic relations with the Nationalist Government of China which continued on until the Philippines recognized the People’s Republic of China in 1975 through the signing of a joint communiqué by leaders of the two countries.

Since the Song Dynasty, evidence of trade between pre-colonial times in the Philippines and China can be traced through Chinese ceramics found in ar-cheological sites such as Santa Ana Manila. To date, this ceremonial signing in Beijing, and just as history has shown us, is, as Secretary Frasco said, a new era of tourism built on partnership and the commitment to drive the industry into a stronger, more sustainable, and more resilient economic pillar for the coun-try’s transformation into a tourism powerhouse in Asia.

Through the implementation program with China, massive employment opportunities and investments across all sectors of tourism throughout the Philip-pines would be generated, while encouraging and supporting together the exchange of their respective administrators and tourism professionals in order to strengthen the mutual development in the field of hotels, resorts, cruise, port, tourism products and other related industries and competency standards.

Tourism safety being another key factor covered by the cooperation will ensure that both parties will commit to joint measures that will guarantee the rights, interests and safety of tourists visiting each other’s country. As an expectation, both the Philippines and China are coming together in support of each oth-er’s tourism advocacies and programs that will allow sustainable development and growth in their respective tourism industries.

Prior to the onslaught of Covid-19, the Philippines recorded 8.26 million international visitor arrivals where China placed second as the country’s top tourist market with a total of 1.74 million arrivals. Our efforts in solidifying our friendship and cooperation between the Philippines and China go deep into history and, looking ahead, both countries are joining hands to overcome the pandemic, accelerate development and maintain peace within the region.