Charter flights from Australia to Cebu to start on Dec. 15
More Australian tourists are expected to visit Cebu starting this December when an Australian airline starts its direct charter flights between Darwin, Australia and Cebu.
Wild Orchid Airlines will start its direct flights on Dec. 15 and aims to have at least 20 charter flights until 2013.
“They really contacted us (DOT) and expressed their interest to start chartering flights from Darwin,” said Rowena Montecillo, regional director of the Department of Tourism in Central Visayas (DOT-7).
“This is another opportunity for us to get more from this market, which is considered the next market to watch out for,” said Montecillo.
She said the DOT will find out what Australians prefer in terms of accommodations, food and holiday activities.
Initially, she was told Australians look for adventures.
Article continues after this advertisement“We definitely have a lot of that to offer here,” said Montecillo, who encouraged tourism establishments to start preparing for the Australian market.
Article continues after this advertisementAccording to Wild Orchid Airlines’ website, they will use a Qantas Boeing 737 and its crew for the charter flights.
The charter flights between Darwin, Australia and Cebu would cut the usually two-day-trip to Cebu from Australia to just a three-hour hop from Darwin, Australia to Cebu or back to Darwin from Cebu.
With the charter flights, Montecillo said Cebu could expect an increase next year in the 173 Australian tourists visiting Cebu since January this year.
“For every flight we are talking about at least 150 Australian tourists and they are looking at 20 flights here,” said Montecillo.
According to the DOT since the first half of the year, Koreans remain Cebu’s biggest foreign tourist group with 43.18 percent or 35,740 followed by Japan with 16.09 percent or around 12,871 Japanese tourists.
Taiwan tourists is the third biggest group with 4.16 percent or 3,329 tourists.
The total number of tourists increased by 4.52% as of June with 219,273 tourists as of June and 63.20 percent of these number are domestic travelers.
