Indian Arrivals in Phillipines Up by 28 Percent

In 2016, more than 90,000 Indian tourists visited the Philippines and recorded 21.27 percent of annual growth.

Speaking about the growth, SanJeet, Tourism Attaché, Philippines Tourism Marketing Office India, said, “Over the years, we have seen a steady growth in Indian tourists to the Philippines and are confident that this trend will continue. We are extremely delighted that the year 2017 is giving us a good start and our continued efforts in targeting the Indian holiday planners through aggressive marketing initiatives will yield even better results by the year end.”

In 2017, the DOT Philippines will be more focused on consumers as well as corporates to promote this beautiful archipelago as a Leisure, Luxury, Wedding and MICE destination. “We want to leverage on our tourism product offerings and attract the Indian traveller to soon achieve our target of 100,000 tourist arrivals to the Philippines,” added SanJeet.

The Indian travel trade partners credited continuous efforts made by the Philippines Tourism Marketing Office for the increase in visitor arrivals. Rajeev Kale, President and Country Head-Leisure Travel, MICE, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd, added, “The Philippines offers India’s discerning individual travellers opportunities that are truly unique, like an opportunity to sight whale sharks–the ocean’s gentle giants or a traditional shrimp fishing expedition and a cook-out on the beach. At Thomas Cook India, having recently conducted a significant corporate group movement to the Philippines, we see strong potential not just for our leisure travellers, but equally for our corporate MICE and b-leisure segments.”

Nagsri Prasad Shashidhar, Head Outbound, Mercury Travels, said, “The Philippines has certainly found a market in India for itself and more and more clients are getting interested in wanting to travel there since the traditional Far East destinations have been done multiple times over. Manila, Cebu, Boracay and Palawan are the ones popular. The numbers from Mercury for the Philippines have indeed been growing Year-on-Year and we are extremely encouraged with this trend.”