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| PHILIPPINES TRAVEL NEWS AND FEATURES |
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28 September 2004
Durano sees five million tourists in 2010 Bares top three guiding principles
Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano is confident the Department of Tourism will achieve the five million international visitor arrivals for the next six years.
Speaking before the 5th Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) General Membership Meeting held recently at Hotel Intercontinental Manila, Durano insisted that he wants to beat the odds out of achieving five million tourists by 2010.
Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano explains the three tourism guiding principles (1. prioritize target market 2. focus and 3. coordinated leadership) on how to achieve five million tourist arrivals for the next six years during the 5th Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) General Membership Meeting held recently at the Manila Intercontinental Hotel.
“The odds are in our favor. If you look at the global trend, local travel is increasing. With this global trend coupled with the fruits of the efforts of my predecessors, I am proud to say that we reached the 28 percent growth rate this August compared to last year’s arrivals. If we sustain the growth rate annually, there is no reason why we cannot achieved the five million tourists,” he stressed.
Durano added “The traveling public have adjusted themselves to the new reality. They are more sophisticated and even travel advisories don’t stop them wherever they want to go as long as the information are available to them.”
In order for him to achieved his mission, Durano laid his top three guiding principles. First, is to prioritize target market. The bulk of DOT’s marketing and promotional efforts next year will be focused in Japan, South Korea and China. Based on these priority target markets, the country is more competitive in beach, eco-tourism, sightseeing and shopping market segments.
Next is to focus on all the industry’s resources in international promotion. In promoting the country to these priority markets, Durano revealed the DOT will be using each country’s specific approach, meaning the marketing channels, marketing tools, and the content will highly depend on what is more effective in these three respective priority target markets.
In Japan for instance, Durano announced that the DOT will participate in next year’s World Expo in Nagoya which will be on March to September. All promotional and marketing initiatives of DOT will be anchored in this exposition.
The high internet users per capita in South Korea has prompted DOT to upgrade its website and make it an effective marketing and sales tool for this target travel market.
The tourism chief revealed that China is considered as a channel-pushed market. “This is not a mass media-pushed market. In other words, it is the travel agencies and travel tour operators of the country that highly influence where and when the people of this market will travel. For this market, our strategy is to spend heavily on trade promotion and trade exchange,” he said.
Durano also pointed out that the visa acquisition in this market is a crucial issue. He announced that that DOT together with the Department of Justice, Department of Foreign Affairs and with the personal intervention of the President will be introducing the Visa-Upon-Arrival for Chinese tourists. For this matter, the DOT will host a free seminar on the requirements of the visa-upon-arrival process on September 29 at the DOT Auditorium.
The Secretary explained that those traveling in tour groups from mainland China will not be required to get visa before leaving China. Instead, they will be given “visa upon arrival.”
The 3rd guiding principle according to the Tourism Chief is the coordinated leadership between the government and the business sector. The following partnerships according to him shall be forged: The DOF to create titles of ambassadors, DOJ to help for the visa-upon-arrival matters, DILG,PNP and DND for tourists security, DENR for the conversion of public land into an alienable land, and DOTC and DPWH for the tourism-related infrastructure and communication concerns.
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