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Tuesday, October 09, 2004
RP targets five million tourists annually (12:10 p.m.)
MANILA -- The Philippines is targeting five million tourist arrivals annually over the next six years through a new policy of prioritized marketing to Asian countries, the tourism secretary said Saturday.
Tourism Secretary Joseph Durano was quoted in a government statement as saying that the strong performance of tourism this year made him confident the Philippines could get five million tourists annually.
He cited the 29.2 percent increase in tourist arrivals in the Philippines from a year earlier to 1.453 million in the eight months to August.
Only 1.907 million tourists arrived in 2003 and the government originally projected that 2.5 million will come here in 2004.
"If we sustain the growth rate... there is no reason we cannot achieve the five million tourist arrivals," Durano was quoted as saying.
He said his department would implement policies of prioritizing target markets to raise tourist arrivals. As a result, the bulk of the Tourism Department's marketing and promotional efforts will be focused on Japan, South Korea and China," Durano added.
He also said that the Philippines continued to attract tourists despite foreign travel advisories warning of possible terrorist threats in parts of this country.
Durano said that despite a British advisory warning of incidents of terrorism and kidnapping in the southern Philippines, British arrivals here rose to 37,262 in the first eight months of the year from 30,375 in the same period last year.
Tourist arrivals peaked at 2.223 million in 1997 but the Asian financial crisis, terrorist attacks here and in the United States, and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic elsewhere in Asia cut the number of annual visitors below two million over the next six years.(AFP)
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