Chinese influx to lift Phl tourism to historic highs

There is so much more the Philippines can do to maximize its potential in tourism.

“We are in the beginning of massive tourism boom,” said property consultant David Leechiu.

Leechiu, who owns the Leechiu Property Consultants, believes that if the Philippines could effectively attract Chinese travelers to come to the Philippines, tourism will see its historical peak.

“We all talk about mainland Chinese and we almost touched the one million mark,” he said adding that Thailand was able to attract 11 million Chinese travelers, the Philippines can catch up if it were to push aggressive marketing campaign to Chinese tourists.

The active Chinese travelers, who travel in large groups, is seen to lift the country’s tourism high, specifically if it were to lure the middle-class and wealthy Chinese nationals.

Leechiu expressed appreciation of the Duterte administration’s fierce and unpopular decision to rehabilitate Boracay, as it paints good tourism PR to the rest of the world.

While the Philippines is on the onset of tourism boom, Leechiu said stakeholders should start to be conscious of taking care of the properties. He mentioned Siargao, which is beginning to face sewerage and waste management problem.

Meanwhile, the Department of Tourism (DOT) is now closely monitoring other islands in the country for environmental compliance, letters of warning has been sent to local government units (LGUs) of La Union, El Nido, Coron in Palawan, and Panglao, to work on their environmental compliance as mandated by law.