Cebu's tourism to grow with more international flights

Tourism Secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano said Cebu’s tourism development got a boost with the decision of three airlines to open more flights to the central Philippine island.

Durano said airline company China Southern will launch its Shanghai-Cebu flights that will fly three times weekly starting this May.

”That first flight is going to be fully booked,” he said during his speech at the opening last Friday of the 3rd Tourism and Lifestyle Expo at SM City Cebu.

He said Cathay Pacific will also increase its United Kingdom-Hong Kong-Cebu flights to four times a week at the end of this month, bringing more tourists not only from Hong Kong but from Europe as well.

National flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) will also start its Osaka, Japan-Cebu flights within the year.

Durano said Shanghai, which is the second biggest outbound market in China, will be a “very promising” market for Cebu since tourists from Shanghai are one of the “most cosmopolitan.”

”Most tourists flying Shanghai-Manila, most of them are business travelers. But the tourists we get from the Shanghai-Cebu route, mostly are leisure travelers,” he said.

It means they visit Cebu to shop, eat and go to the beaches, he added.

Although the volume of Chinese tourists to the Philippines only average about 200,000 annually, the growth rate is at 60 percent per year.

There is only one flight daily to and from Beijing, which Durano said, is the top outbound market from China.

PAL can only allocate 20 seats per flight, to the dismay of tour operators.

PAL’s Osaka-Cebu flights will bring in tourists from Japan’s second fastest growing outbound market, Durano said.

Although the growth rate of Japanese tourists is only at two to three percent a year, they average at 500,000 and are known to be heavy spenders.

”They always stay at five-star hotels and spend for the finer things in life, like the most expensive wine in a hotel,” he said.

”But as far as industry is concerned, any of them is good for us. The more, the merrier,” he said.

Koreans remain the number one tourists in the country, with arrivals reaching 590,000 last year and recording a 20 percent growth for the first two months of the year.

The Department of Tourism projects Korean tourists to reach 760,000 this year.

Cebu accounts for 30 percent of the foreign tourists in the country.

Durano said tourist arrivals in the country last month grew 10.6 percent over those in February 2005.

”As long as we stay the course, it’s going to be another good year,” he said.

Durano also commended Cebu City and provincial government officials for being real allies of tourism (PNA).