Int’l travel full recovery seen by 2024

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International travel to the Philippines will return to pre-2019 levels by 2024, according to Roberto Alabado III, DOT undersecretary.

Alabama told a a forum hosted by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce over the weekend, the DOT is working on sustaining the interest of new and niche markets while introducing new products that meet the tourist’s change in preference in traveling.

Alabado said DOT is luring tourists from Asean after noting there are more Thais and Vietnamese going to the Philippines than Filipinos going to Thailand and Vietnam.

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“We have created an impact because some of the first visitors that came when the borders opened are from Thailand and Vietnam,” Alabado said.

He added the Philippines is also looking at Malaysia, Indonesia and the Middle East as the Philippines positions itself as a Muslim-friendly destination.

“We are espousing halal tourism…We can provide the needs of our Muslim brothers and sisters in the Asean region when they come visit,” he said.

Other opportunity markets are the Mediterranean and the Nordics.

“In the next decade, we (see) tourism will potentially learn to adapt to the current pandemic. The behavior (of tourists) has changed…they would prefer outdoors (where) it’s much safer and they want to travel in smaller groups, with relatives or friends and are very health conscious. The tourism industry must also learn to adapt to these changing behaviors, “ Alabado added.

Alabado said the DOT is also pushing for the development of more ports for cruise tourism over the next decade.

“Pre- pandemic, the Philippines was the darling in Southeast Asia because we were a greenfield (in cruise tourism) … we have a lot of islands,” Alabado said.

Using 2018 arrivals 8 million as benchmark, Alabado said international tourism would hit that level by 2024 or 2025.

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