Advertisement
Coronavirus: Philippines rolls out tourism push to make up for lost Chinese visitors
- More than a fifth of the Philippines’ inbound tourists came from China last year, but Manila has banned travel from the mainland due to the virus outbreak
- Their absence could cost the economy up to US$292 million this month alone, according to an estimate by the country’s tourism secretary
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
The Philippines is gearing up to slash hotel and airline rates, hold sales in major shopping centres and heavily market its tourism sector – except to visitors from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, whose residents are currently barred from entering.
“What we have to tell our tourists [is] it’s safe to come to our country. No local transmission and the hotels and restaurants are ready,” tourism secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said on Tuesday.
On February 2, the Philippines announced the first death outside mainland China from the coronavirus outbreak that has spread across the globe and killed nearly 1,900 of the more than 73,000 people it has infected – mostly on the mainland.
Advertisement
That same day, in a bid to stop the virus from spreading, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced a ban on all foreigners from China, Hong Kong and Macau – the combined source of more than one-fifth of the country’s inbound tourists last year.
Advertisement
This loss could cost the Philippine tourism sector – which accounted for more than 12 per cent of GDP in 2018 – as much as 14.8 billion pesos (US$292 million) in February alone, according to Romulo-Puyat’s own estimate.
To compensate, she said the country’s tourism promotion campaigns would focus on South Korea, the United States, Australia, Japan and Europe.
Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x