By ELLSON A. QUISMORIO
September 3, 2011, 7:07pm
XIAMEN, China – How will the Philippines go about wooing tourists from China and elsewhere to visit the Philippines?
Answer: By “leveling up” the airports.
President Benigno S. Aquino III, on the last day of his five-day state visit in the People’s Republic of China (PROC), has ordered a development plan with the purpose of improving the state of existing Philippine airports to the tune of $6 billion.
Other points of entry such as seaports will also be covered by the plan, which will run for at least four years.
(This is) for port and airport development in the next four or five years,” said Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC) Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.
“These are combinations of studies, engineering, design as well as physical infrastructures. This includes the start of hard infrastructure projects for airports and ports,” Roxas said.
Under the development plan, community airports will become first class airports while first class airports will become international-standard airports. With the huge allocation, a new structure may even be put up in the next few years, Roxas said.
“Right now we have 86 airports all over the country but only around 40 them have regular flights. So if we’re talking about tourism, it is very important to improve these other airports to make travelling easier for tourists.”
During this state visit, the Aquino managed to reach an accord with China in bringing over a total of two million Chinese tourists to the Philippines by 2016.
The former senator said President Aquino wants the country’s islands to be more connected, easing the movement of people, products and ultimately, trade.
Roxas said the government’s “open skies effort” ties well with the upgrade plan in enticing more tourists to visit the country.
“One example that we want to emulate is the case of Seoul, Korea. There are 22 locations within China that offer flights to Korea. There are billions of people here. With all those tourists and money, it is our hope that we get a good chunk of it and help create jobs for Filipinos.”
A major boon to the Philippines’ development plan is the deluge of Chinese investors who have expressed their interest in establishing the necessary infrastructure for tourism. One of them, Jin Jiang International Holdings Co. Ltd., owns over 80,000 hotel rooms in China and is considered one of the biggest hotel and tourism groups in the country.
“They are interested in building 33 hotels all over the Philippines over the next five years. These are small hotels that would serve their customers, the Chinese tourists, so they may be accommodated in the country,” the DoTC secretary bared.
“We’re connecting our infrastructure development plan to the efforts of those who want bring over tourists and invest in airports. That way there is convergence.”
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