Chinese tourists in Philipine are likely to double due to the increasing number of flights between the two countries.
The Philippines can easily double the number of tourists from China in three years once it gets to increase flights to that country, according to Jaime Bautista, president and chief operating officer of Philippine Airlines (PAL).
PAL plans to add one more city to its China destinations before the end of the year, Bautista said in an interview on the sidelines of the opening of the Travel Madness Expo at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay on Friday.
He declined to identify this city but he said currently, PAL flies to seven cities in China, including Xiamen, Jinjiang, Shanghai, Canton and Beijing.
Bautista said PAL will also add more flights to its existing destinations in China to address growing interests from Chinese tourists.
“The Philippines has the least number of flights to China, and we could easily double the number of Chinese tourists going to the Philippines in three years,” he added.
Statistics from the Department of Tourism (DOT) show as of the first five months of the year, China is the third biggest market of Philippine tourism with 285,348 arrivals or 11.33 percent.
In 2015, China was the fourth biggest market with 490,841 visitors, comprising 9.16 percent of the total inbound traffic.
Among the top 12 markets, China was able to post the highest growth of 24.28 percent in 2015.
China is also the fifth top spending market of the Philippines, spending P10.19 billion in 2015, DOT data show.
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