DOT still eyes 2 million more tourists this year

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Tourism is keeping its target and eyeing to lure nearly two million more foreign tourists this year despite the resignation of Secretary Alberto Lim.

Tourism Assistant Secretary Benito Bengzon said the DOT would not allow Lim’s sudden exit to derail the department’s programs and affect the tourism industry.

“The programs are already in place and the DOT will make sure that they are carried out and be able to reach the target of 3.7 million international

arrivals by yearend,” Bengzon said in an interview.

DOT has recorded 1,919,400 foreign visitors in the first six months of the year, which means an additional 1.8 million tourists are needed to enable the department to achieve its target.

The figure for the first half of 2011 was 12 percent higher compared to the 1,713,286 foreign arrivals recorded during the same period in 2010.

According to Bengzon, South Korea remained as the country’s top market with a total arrival of 429,560 tourists in the first half of the year.

United States came in second with 338,020 tourists followed by Japan with 181,379 arrivals and China with 105,423 from January to June.

Other countries in the DOT list of top 12 markets are Taiwan, Australia, Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Malaysia and Germany.

Bengzon said the DOT is also seeking P1.5 billion budget for next year, a large chunk of which would go to marketing promotions.

“For marketing promotions we allocated some P500 million because marketing is really necessary so we could lure at least four million foreign tourists in 2012,’’ he explained.

 Bengzon said the DOT is also awaiting approval of the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP), a pet project of the resigned tourism secretary.

Under the NTDP, the DOT would be working with concerned government agencies in implementing infrastructure projects aimed at making the different destinations accessible and with better services.

Bengzon said that with the upgrading of the international airports, the DOT expects to attract about 6.5 million foreign tourists and generate 2.9 million jobs in the next five years.

He said they already submitted the proposal to Malacañang for President Aquino’s approval.