PGMA invites Bollywood to participate in new Philippine tourism program

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The Department of Tourism’s (DOT) newest program focusing on the film entertainment industry got a boost from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who met with Bollywood directors, actors, and producers during her recent visit to Mumbai, India. The group made a courtesy call to the chief executive to discuss the possibilities of filming future movie productions in the Philippines.

The DOT’s Film Tourism project aims to entice a different set of visitors to the Philippines, starting with the Mumbai cinema and then on to Hollywood in the US and other countries. The plan is to capitalize on the popularity and influence of movies among viewers by encouraging location shoots in the country.

President Arroyo called on the Confederation of Indian Industries to consider using the Philippines as a setting for Bollywood films, citing the country’s strategic location and well-educated, productive, and English-speaking workforce as advantages. The head of state also touted the nation’s “white-sand beaches, enigmatic and mysterious rainforests, historical heritage sites and crystalline landscapes like lahar and sand dunes” as just some of the places to weave Mumbai’s cinematic magic.

Bollywood is considered the biggest motion picture industry in the world, which comes out with an estimated 1,000 movies annually. The average budget for these films is US$2 million to US$3 million, with the most expensive productions costing US$10 million. The colorful song and dance extravaganzas are viewed by around 23 million Indians everyday.

Given such wide reach, the DOT is keen on tapping this new market segment especially since Bollywood locations soon become trendy and popular tourist destinations among Indian travelers, making it an effective means to promote tourism in the Philippines. In the Asian region, both Malaysia and Singapore have used Bollywood cinema to advertise their countries and have since become popular destinations for Indian visitors.

“President Arroyo’s active promotion of the new Film Tourism program will start the ball rolling for us, and we look forward to hearing from the Mumbai cinema industry regarding sites here in the Philippines. Bollywood producers have also realized that sequences shot overseas draw more viewers, so opening the country to them could prove to be beneficial for both parties,” Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano explained.

This early, well-known Indian film producer Aditya Raj Kapoor has committed to doing a US$10 million movie project in the Philippines by next year.

A total of 17,989 Indian nationals visited the Philippines between January and August 2007, marking a 16.5 percent growth compared to the 15,445 figure registered during the same period last year. The DOT expects these numbers to increase once the new program is in full swing.