The Philippines’ tourism leader say there’s huge potential to build on the strong Australian market through new direct connections to different islands.
Speaking to media in Sydney last week, Tourism Philippines’ Undersecretary for Tourism Development, Benito C. Bengzon Jr. said the bureau has been hard at work over the last few years to build on the number of flights from Australia to Manila and “hopefully to other parts of the Philippines”.
Ideally, Benito said he’d like to get direct flights from Australia to Cebu off the ground because it would be a real “game changer”.
“We’re hoping to get a connection to Cebu. It’s going to be the game changer.”
Benito C. Bengzon Jr., Tourism Philippines Undersecretary for Tourism Development
Benito continued, saying that the connection to Cebu would drastically boost visitor numbers of the destination, which currently sit at around 250,000 per year.
“That’s great but we see huge potential to build on that,” he explained.
Over the next few years, Tourism Philippines is aiming to welcome half a million Aussies per year. This will be achieved through a nine step plan, which targets cruise, medical, education, diving, heritage, adventure and MICE travellers.
Benito said leisure travellers from Australia were high priority because of their favourable demographics. For example, Aussies spend more time in the destination than other top markets, which ultimately leads to them spending more.
“Australians are very lucrative.”
Benito C. Bengzon Jr., Tourism Philippines Undersecretary for Tourism Development
Currently Australians are the fifth largest market to the Philippines, behind Korea – the number one inbound market – and China, which recently overtook Japan for the second top spot.
Although Australian straddle the middle of the top 10 destinations, Benito said Aussies are considered “trail blazers” for the country because their adventurous nature helped develop tourism to smaller, lesser visited islands.
“Many of these destinations were put on the global map for overseas travellers because of Australians.”
Benito C. Bengzon Jr., Tourism Philippines Undersecretary for Tourism Development
