The Department of Tourism (DOT) Route Development Team is planning to attract one million Chinese visitors next year in a bid to further improve tourism in the Philippines.
But the DOT Route Development Team said 45 flights per day from China are needed to bring in the Chinese tourists. There are currently 30 flights a day from China.
The DOT Team was also studying the possibility of removing visa restrictions on Chinese visitors to the Philippines.
“If the entry of Chinese to the Philippines is visa free, we would be very capable of reaching one million (Chinese tourists). Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and even Myanmar give visa-free entry to Chinese tourists, we are the only one who does not,” according to DOT Route Development head Erwin Balane.
Balane said the targeted one million passengers had been based on the assumption that all passengers in an Airbus 320 are all Chinese.
“In the Philippines, we have about 19 million international passengers. And yet we’re only hitting close to six million tourists, meaning 30 percent of total passengers are tourists, and the rest are returning residents,” he said.
Only four airlines from China are operating in the Philippines — Air China, China Eastern Airline, China Southern Airline and Xiamen Air.
The DOT wants directs flights between China and Boracay, Cebu City, and Davao City. The Clark International Airport can also serve the Chinese tourists who wish to visit the country.
The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) posted 36,681,601 passengers in 2015 and 34,015,169 in 2014.