Tourism sector to benefit from positive ICAO review

THE recent lifting of the Philippines off the list of countries considered a significant safety security concern by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will open more opportunities for more airline companies to add more routes in major and new tourism markets for the country, including Cebu, which is a top destination in the country.

Jo Ann Castillo, Crimson Resort and Spa Cebu director of sales, gave this observation as the high-end resort prepared to diversify its market mix with more positive developments happening in the tourism industry.

“Once the expansion of the airport is also completed by 2016, we expect tourism to grow even more although competition is tighter now, we still see growth in the industry and in individual properties like Crimson,” said Castillo.

The Philippines also recently made it to the Lonely Planet Traveller’s Choice 2013 and rated as one of the Top 10 popular destinations to go to for meeting locals (ranked 6th) and value for money (ranked 8th).

These developments, according to Castillo will fuel more growth for the industry not only in Cebu but for the whole country as well.

new products

Kristofer Quadros, Crimson Resort and Spa Cebu resident manager, said that for tourists to continue coming back to the country, those in the tourism industry should develop more new products.

More aggressive marketing and promotions is also needed, according to Quadros, most preferrably in active collaboration between the public and private sectors.

“Support infrastructure should also be in place like wider roads, efficient airport and seaports and other developments that will make tourists’ experiences more memorable,” Castillo said.

tourism growth

Department of Tourism regional director Rowena Montecillo said that the average year-on-year growth rate in terms of tourist arrival for the month of January is about 6 to 10 percent.

As of January last year, there were 211, 875 tourists that came to Cebu, 49.88 percent are foreign travellers dominated by Koreans with 42,437 or 40.1 percent share of the total foreign tourists in January last year.

With at least 6 percent growth this year, DOT is expecting an addition of at least 12,712 tourist for the month of January.

“That is just a conservative estimate because we all know that in January we have the Sinulog festival which usually gathers a lot of tourists to Cebu,” said Montecillo.

Montecillo said that the private sectors’ aggressive marketing in new markets will have a good impact in the sustainability of the tourism industry in Cebu which they at the public sector-side are trying hard to complement through more enabling policies like the recent signing by President Benigno Aquino III of the law eliminating the Common Carriers Tax for the international airline companies.

market mix

Quadros said for Crimson, they’re looking at a good mix of  domestic travelers, European, Japanese and other neighbors in Asia like Cambodia and Singapore.

Since they opened in 2010, the 290-room resort has been getting mostly Korean tourists in their property which they would like to balance this year.

korean market

Castillo said about 65 percent of their guests are Koreans while locals or domestic travelers make up the 15 percent and the remaining 20 percent is shared by Japanese, Europeans and a little of the Chinese market.

“We have been talking to the travel agents and they were telling us that they are seeing the Korean market to shrink starting this year because they are starting to look at other new destinations for their honeymoons and vacations, that is why this year we would like to market our property to other markets so as not to be too dependent on the Koreans,” said Castillo.