The Department of Tourism (DOT) has started to implement “twin-destination” promos between the Philippines and other countries in Asia Pacific in a bid to boost tourism arrivals from North America.
DOT Secretary Wanda Teo enlisted support from various stakeholders in implementing twin-destination tour packages, one of which is flag-carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL), which has provided airfares at discounted prices.
The DOT chief also said that Eva Air, which flies to Cebu; Asiana Airlines, and just recently Korean Airlines which has added flights from San Francisco going to Manila, are also among the airline partners which have been very supportive of the DOT in conducting its familiarization trips, and soon the Balikbayan packages.
Meanwhile, Teo said that the West Coast has already committed to produce tourists all over the US to twin destinations of Manila and Bangkok in October this year.
DOT San Francisco is also pairing off Manila with Vietnam, with PAL offering special rates for Manila-Saigon, US-MLA-Siagon. PAL which has started giving out special rate promotions for Thailand, will soon be complemented by a network that will carry all tour packages for the country beginning the last quarter of this year.
Teo expressed confidence that twinning Philippine destinations will not only bring in foreign arrivals especially from North America, but also open up opportunities for domestic tourism and secondary gateways.
California and Vancouver are among hosts of the most diverse Asian diasporas in North America, making them perfect markets for the program.
Data from the DOT showed that US places second as the top foreign visitor market of the Philippines with 14.87 percent of the total market share or 428,767 arrivals in the first five months of 2017.
This figure is a 12.78 percent increase compared to US arrivals in the same period last year with only 377,595.
Teo said that while destination twinning has already been an established program of the DOT in the recent years, the agency has been working to expand the reach of its strategy to new emerging markets like Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia, among others.
In the case of San Francisco, Teo said that it is the very first time they are touching base with Thai and Vietnamese travel markets, only this year.
“Our target for them is to increase these markets by 10 percent in the next two years,” Teo said.
Photo credit: Aviation CV
