| The Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA), a travel trade body in Philippines is now focusing on emerging tourism markets like India, China and Middle East for improving the visitor arrival figures of the country. The Association is looking at working closely with Indian travel trade for understanding the needs of the Indian market and is also working closely with the tourism board to promote Philippines in India. The biggest tourism source markets for the country were US and Europe. However, due to the European Union (EU) banning all flights of local airlines of Philippines to EU (effective from April 1, 2010), the tourism industry of the country has recorded ten percent dip in revenue. EU issued the ban on the basis of safety assessments by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in September 2009 and the downgrading of Philippines based airlines safety rating by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2008. A source close to the development from PTAA informed that the ban has worked almost like issuing negative travel advisories on Philippines. The source said, "We have recorded a ten per cent decline due to the EU ban. We are now focusing on potential markets like India, Middle East and China to make up for the loss in revenue and are working closely with the travel trade industry of these countries. The Civil Aviation Authority of Philippines has assured PTAA that it is addressing the issue of the ban and is working towards getting it revoked at the earliest. While the ban is in effect, the new markets are doing fine and although they (India, China and Middle East, Japan and Australia with the latter doing better) are still in developing stage, they show good potential for our country in coming years." |
Tuesday, June 01, 2010