The Philippine Tour Operators Association Inc. (Philtoa) said the group targets to recover even just half of the P3 trillion expenditure in domestic tourism registered pre-pandemic to signal a takeoff.
In yesterday’s press conference announcing the 20th edition of the Philippine Travel Exchange (PHITEX), Philtoa president Cesar Cruz said the group now focuses on land interzonal travel to buoy domestic tourism.
“Our objective right now is if we could only bring back half of the P3 trillion, that’s more than enough for tourism recovery,” Cruz said.
Domestic tourism expenditures in 2019 stood at P3.14 trillion.
Cruz said Philtoa has observed that before the third hard lockdown when Boracay was opened to visitors from the National Capital Region in June, the island attracted tourists from across the social strata and not just the high-end market.
“Our reading of the market is that people have already embraced the challenge (that is the new coronavirus disease 2019). With this mindset of our domestic travellers, we are very optimistic that even before the end of the year, depending on the restrictions at least for domestic tourism, we can already take off,” Cruz said.
Cruz said because of the challenges posed by air travel, Philtoa promotes land travel in Luzon and In Mindanao and inter- island travel by ferry in the Visayas.
In Luzon, he said, tour operators can come up with a lot of packages for land travel from Bicol to Ilocos.
The Tourism Promotions Board Philippines (TPB) is holding between September 19 and 23 the PHITEX hybrid event in Subic Bay as the new venue for the online business-to-business sessions and networking.
DOT Secretary Bernadette Puyat said in the press conference this year’s edition of PHITEX targets P400 million sales with 156 sellers and 122 buyers from 33 countries in attendance.
This year’s theme will highlight safe, smart, and sustainable tourism as part of the TPB’s strategic marketing plan for the new normal.
