‘Small’ markets help RP

Published on Sun.Star Network Online (http://www.sunstar.com.ph)
by: Debra Magallon-Estero

DESPITE the decreased arrivals of tourists from the country’s regular travelers, Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano revealed the “smaller markets” has helped the department “almost” achieve its growth target for 2008.

In an interview last Friday, Durano said tourist arrivals last year grew by two percent, or close to 3.2 million tourist arrivals.The Department of Tourism (DOT) has set the 2008 target at 3.5 million.

“We are one of the remaining markets that still achieved positive growth in the world,” Durano noted.

He said that in 2008, close to 50 percent of the country’s regular traveling market has decreased.

This includes tourists from Japan, Korean, the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong.

“The Japanese arrivals were better than expected,” he said but added that last year there were two million less Japanese travelers worldwide.

“But even when a bulk of the volume went down, the growth of the smaller markets (helped),” he said.

Among the emerging markets are the Russians, a market that grew 34 percent. French arrivals also increased 18 percent while tourists from the United Kingdom grew 10 percent. Australians and Taiwanese arrivals also grew between six and eight percent.

Durano, who said tourist arrivals will continue to contract this year, also believes the industry can still “manage to outperform the market” with close to two percent growth from last year by the end of 2009.

“We can only perform as well as the market will allow us to perform,” he added. (DME)

Source URL: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/%E2%80%98small%E2%80%99-markets-help-rp