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Friday, October 01, 2004
DOT, tour wholesalers in China to push RP
THE Department of Tourism (DOT) will begin intensifying its marketing campaign in China by tying up with four state-controlled tour wholesalers in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
The department has discovered through market research that the Chinese tourism market is a channel-push market and that mass marketing will have less impact.
But a Chinese diplomat said Philippine tourism players should first address the complaints of Chinese tourists who have been to the Philippines, particularly Cebu.
During a tourism forum at the Cebu Grand Hotel last Wednesday, Tourism Secretary Ace Durano said the DOT will have joint advertising efforts with the big four tour wholesalers to push specific tour packages, aside from organizing familiarization trips for these tour operators as well as Chinese officials and journalists, and printing brochures and other informational materials in Mandarin.
The DOT will also work on increasing air access to Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing, he said.
With these action plans for China, DOT aims to increase arrivals from China to the Philippines by 50 percent this year to a total volume of 48,058.
Chinese arrivals in the Philippines last year reached 32,039.
Cebu received 3,202 tourists from China in the first seven months of this year, up 6.45 percent from the same period last year.
Target
The DOT is following the recommendations of consulting firm McKinsey to target China. China, which has 1.3 billion inhabitants, posted a 9.1 percent growth in its gross domestic product last year, which means its people have the money to spend.
Durano said most of the Chinese spending goes to shopping and eco-tourism.
As for Chinese-speaking tour guides, Durano said the DOT will tap the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to look for former overseas Filipino workers in Taiwan who are now in the Philippines and speak Chinese.
The DOT opened an office in Beijing last July.
Durano is also encouraging hotels, resorts and airlines in the country to open sales offices in China.
Complaints
But Consul General Wu Lianqi of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China (PROC) in Cebu, told Sun.Star that Chinese tourists who had been to Cebu had complained of the lack of places to go after dinner.
“Some Chinese visited Cebu. They were very satisfied with the beach and the water. But after dinner, nowhere to go. Everywhere so dark. Bars in the hotels close at 10 p.m.,” he said on the sidelines of the 55th anniversary celebration of the founding of the PROC at Waterfront Cebu City Hotel.
“For tourists, you have to provide a place for them to spend their money. The casino is not enough,” he said.
After dark
Wu explained that in other places like Beijing or Pattaya in Thailand, after midnight, many people still go out.
In the Philippines, however, tourists cannot even go shopping, because the shops close early.
Restaurants close early as well, and do not have the international mix of band and dance troupe performances that are staples in other tourist destinations, he said.
He added that the Chinese enjoy getting massage and spa services as well, but there is not enough room in the hotels, while the services outside hotels, according to feedback he received, are “not safe.”
The DOT 7 is planning to implement an accreditation system for spas to protect tourists, especially foreign ones.
Infrastructure
Wu urged Cebu to learn from the experience of China, which he said, 10-15 years ago, received an avalanche of complaints from tourists because although it had beautiful places for visitors to see, it did not have enough hotels, highways, clean water and communication facilities.
“So we concentrated on building our infrastructure first. For 10 years, we built our infrastructure” and trained the people, including tour guides, to receive visitors. Today, he said, 90 percent of visitors to China are satisfied.
“But in Cebu, look at the roads, the electricity, the water supply?” he said, hinting that they needed much improvement.
Wu attributed the swift rise of China’s economy to its tourism revenues.
He said Beijing alone, a city with a population of 14 million, similar to Metro Manila’s population, receives four million visitors “every day.”
This is possible because Beijing has 1,000 hotels, of which 300 are five-star hotels, Wu said. (JBN/CTL)
(October 1, 2004 issue)
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