Seair opens Davao-Manila route

DAVAO City's tourism industry got another major boost after another airline company opened new flights from Davao City to Metro Manila carrying the slogan "It's more fun in the Philippines" of the Department of Tourism (DOT).

South East Asian Airlines (Seair) held its inaugural flight at the Davao City International Airport Sunday morning using its Airbus 320.

Seair chief executive officer (CEO) Patrick Tan said they will be flying from Davao to Manila twice a day, but will increase the frequency by three times a day starting October 8. The newly acquired airbus 320 has a 186-seating capacity.

"We're pushing the increase of market in terms of traffic from Davao," Tan said.

Tan also bared plans to acquire at least two new aircrafts every year for the next three years, but said they will only open new flights depending on the market of an area.

The new aircraft of Seair is bringing the tourism slogan of the country to promote the different tourism destinations in the country here and abroad.

The tourism slogan is visible on the fuselage of the aircraft. Tan said the airline started to carry the tourism slogan of the country to the other aircrafts flying to Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Kota Kibalo early last week.

"The DOT's main objective is to show it around the region. We decided to have that because our commitment is to push Philippine tourism," Tan said.

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said this new marketing strategy to promote the Philippines as a tourism destination has very relative impact to both local and foreign tourists.

"It has a positive impression to everyone. It will create awareness of what Philippines has to offer in tourism," he said.

Jimenez said the best way to build a demand is to identify what are the possible tourism sites that can be sold to the market.

"The problem in the Philippines is not really the bad image. The problem is there's a lot of ignorance as to what you have. They (market) don't know about it," he said.

He also said that the opening of new flights is a kind of enthusiasm that proves that tourism in the country is getting a bigger share to the economic activity of the country.

The tourism secretary said they are intensifying the campaign to promote the Philippine tourism to create a demand. He added that Asia is the new focus of tourism in the world and that the country has to be ready to accommodate the influx of possible tourists in few years.

He also reported that the tourist arrivals in the Philippines for the first half of the year reached 2.14 million, which is almost halfway to their target of 4.6 million tourist arrivals by yearend.

Also on Saturday, officials from DOT and executives of Mabuhay Taxi and Blugre Coffee spearheaded the launching of the new tourism marketing strategy.

Both foreign and international tourists can expect a more stunning Black Taxis plying around the city with a different Davao Region's tourism sites printed on the sidedoor of the 25 taxis.

For Blugre, the homegrown coffeeshop integrated the "It's more fun in the Philippines" campaign on all its coffee cups.