DOT, AIC meet to make MCIA better as tourist gateway

The Department of Tourism (DOT) recently met with Aboitiz InfraCapital (AIC), the infrastructure arm of the Aboitiz Group, to explore areas of partnership to further strengthen the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) as a major tourism gateway for the Philippines.

AIC, which is responsible for operating and managing the MCIA, shared in the meeting with Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco and other DOT officials the encouraging trajectory of the airport's recovery in 2023.

According to AIC, the MCIA has welcomed 10 million passengers and saw an 80% recovery in air traffic compared to prepandemic levels in 2019.

Their presentation also highlighted recent developments, including the addition of a new airline, three routes, and three destinations throughout the year as reported by DOT.

AIC also outlined its strategic initiatives to further position MCIA as a vital traffic hub and tap into key source markets following the projections from the airline authorities like the International Air Transport Association on increased passenger traffic this year.

On behalf of DOT, Frasco said that her department has been actively promoting the maximization of the country's international airports including MCIA.

This is in recognition of the immense potential of the gateway in boosting connectivity and driving tourism in the entire Visayas region including in Cebu, where tourism services abound --from English as a Second

Language (ESL) programs to dive, leisure, heritage and culture, as well as gastronomy offerings.

The DOT and the MCIA through the AIC agreed to further discuss joint marketing activities such as the hosting of familiarization trips among travel agents and influencers from strategic source markets, encouraging airline companies to mount charter flights to Cebu, as well as looking into possible participation in key international expos.

Last year, MCIA earned its Airports Council International World's Airport Customer Experience Accreditation and won the Routes Asia 2023 Marketing Award for Under 5M Passengers Category and the Austrian Green Planet Building Award.