Phl, Thailand revive tourism ties
The Philippines and Thailand have agreed to revive the 23-year-old tourism cooperation agreement during the recent visit of President Duterte to Bangkok.
The President and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chano-Chan stood as witnesses as Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Wanda Teo and her counterpart, Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MOTS) Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, signed the Implementing Program of Tourism Cooperation 2017-2022 at the Santi Maitri Building of the Government House of Thailand.
The implementing program is rooted in a Memorandum of Agreement on tourism cooperation signed in Manila between the two countries on March 24, 1993.
Thailand joins China, Cambodia and Turkey as the Philippines’ partners with whom the DOT has forged tourism cooperation agreements.
The agreement stipulates, among others, that the two countries shall actively encourage their respective local travel agents to develop a joint promotional program that would market both the Philippines and Thailand in one tour package.
“There is so much we can learn from Thailand in terms of tourism development strategies, noting that it tops Southeast Asian countries in terms of visitor arrivals,” Teo said.
Manila-based travel and tour operators in the delegation to Bangkok said the shared tourism program could strengthen the awareness of international tourists as well as the Thai market about the Philippines destinations.
In 2016, visitor arrivals from Thailand grew by 8.8 percent reaching 47,913, accounting for 10 percent of the total arrivals from ASEAN. Under the agreement, officials and staff of both participants shall visit each country to build their capacity in the areas of tourism development, administration and finance, human resource, marketing and promotions and standards and regulations.
Teo said this development would also encourage tourism educational institutes in both countries to cooperate on exchanging technical materials, sending experts to give lectures and providing information on the opportunities for tourism-related training.