Tourism
RP’s tourism industry remains strong amid slowdown in the global economy
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Oct 6, 2008 - 1:48:03 PM

ILOILO CITY, Oct. 7 (PNA)-– Tourism industry in the country is one of the sectors of the economy that remains strong and will continue to grow amidst the global economic slowdown.

Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano said statistics for the first seven months of this year showed that the industry grows by six percent even with the slow down in the United States and Japan.

South Koreans he said continue to dominate the bigger pie when it comes to the volume of tourist arrivals in the market but it is the Europeans that have registered the higher growth.

“It’s a very good mixture. That’s why despite the slow down in the US and Japan we still have a positive growth rate because our programs in European markets and other Asian markets are producing healthy growths. This is compensating for the slowdown in the US and Japan,” he stressed.

The biggest challenge the industry is facing now, according to Durano, is always the mindset.

He explained that from the start a lot of tourism players felt ‘that there were too many negatives in the country.’

“But we have proven in the past four years that there is enough value in the country as a tourism destination and despite all these challenges we are able to grow it double compared four years ago. We can use whatever we have now and make it grow,” he said.

Durano was the keynote speaker during the awarding nights of the country’s best tourism practices here in Iloilo Saturday evening as part of the highlights of the 9th national convention of the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (ATOP).

In his message, he exhorted all the tourism officers in the country to develop more tourism destinations and tourism products all over the country.