Chinese seen to surpass Korean arrivals in Cebu

Cebu could be just seeing even more Chinese tourists. Visitors from China are seen to soon overtake Koreans as top foreign tourists in Cebu, said Alfred Reyes, vice president for operations at Bai Hotel Cebu.

In an interview yesterday, Reyes noted the rising number of tourists from China and Taiwan in Cebu.

"Chinese tourists could soon overtake Koreans visitors. Population from China is quite a lot," the hotel executive said.

Reyes believes the rising number of direct flights from various Chinese cities to Cebu will bring in more visitors from the world's second biggest economy.

As of end 2017, top tourism market of Central Visayas, where Cebu is a tourist hub, was still Korea, with the highest number of tourist population, noted to be 895,776 in total; followed by China with a volume of 429,306 and has a highest growth rate among the top ten markets; Japan with 408,566; and USA with 219,796.

The Department of Tourism also recorded a total of 71,739 visitors coming from Taiwan.

GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC), operator of Cebu's main air gateway, had expected an increase in Chinese tourist arrivals as airlines mount more direct flights to China from Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA).

“We are mindful of the fact that our traffic growth in Cebu will be driven to a greater extent by our visitors from China. As such we have taken various initiatives to prepare for this growth,” GMCAC president Louie Ferrer had said in August.

Cebu Pacific is set to launch a direct flight to Macau, China starting December this year.

For an efficient and seamless travel through Mactan Airport, GMCAC has installed way-finding and informational signage in both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 with Mandarin translations, as well as Hangul and Nihongo translations.

This is to ensure that all airport processes and directions are well understood by Chinese, Korean and Japanese passengers.

Currently, MCIA has 8 partner airlines flying (both commercial and chartered flights) to 10 destinations in mainland China.

In the first half of 2018, it served a total of 5.76 million passengers, as it projects to reach its target of 11.2 million by the end of the year. —