Philippines aim to attract nearly 70,000 Indian tourists in the current year, a senior official of Philippines Department of Tourism said.
Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of road show here, Chief Tourism Operations Officer (Team India) of Philippines Department of Tourism Glen A Agustin informed that as many as 52,000 tourists arrived in Philippines from India in 2013. And target for 2015 is nearly 70,000 tourists. He said Philippines Tourism was launching some tour packages this year, which is the ‘Visit Philippines Year’.
“2015 is also ‘Visit Philippines Year’. That’s why we are launching other tour packages. We come here because of the potential of the area in terms of outbound traffic into Philippines,” he said. Among the Indian cities, he said Mumbai ranks first with regard to outbound travel, followed by Delhi.
South Korea topped the international tourist inflow to Philippines, followed by US, Japan and China. India ranked at 13th place among the foreign tourists arrivals in Philippines in 2014, he said.
“As of now there no direct flights to connect with India. We are, however, lobbying with airlines (private airliners in Philippines) to launch flights (from India to Philippines) for direct connectivity,” Glen said.
Asked on the proposal of visa-free entry for Indian nationals to Philippines, he said that an announcement in this regard will be made by first quarter of 2015-16 fiscal. (INN)