Philippine Tourism Market Performance

Visitor arrivals to the Philippines from Eastern China continue to surge posting a month-on-month growth rate of around 99% for August 2009.

For the month of July, the Philippine Consulate General in Shanghai also emerged as the top source of visa issuances for travel to the Philippines, among all Philippine consular posts in China, including HKG and Macau.

The sustained growth in arrivals is attributed to the strong performance of the chartered flights from Shanghai to Cebu, and the newly opened charters to Kalibo (Boracay) from both Shanghai and Hangzhou in July.

Other niche markets are also delivering steadily coming from scuba diving, incentive & business travel, study program and expat travel. These travelers use mainly the Shanghai-Manila gateway on Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific.

There are also additional chartered flights for the October golden holiday period. For more information, call the Philippine Tourism Office Shanghai at Tel. No. 021-62797550.