{"id":122985,"date":"2017-10-11T04:34:14","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T08:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=122985"},"modified":"2017-10-11T04:34:14","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T08:34:14","slug":"manila-cruise-port-to-open-before-end-of-duterte-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/11\/manila-cruise-port-to-open-before-end-of-duterte-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Manila cruise port to open before end of Duterte term"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: (Photo: PNA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong> \u2014 To meet the growing demand for cruise lines in key Philippine destinations, a cruise port facility will be opening in Manila before the end of the Duterte administration in 2020.<\/p>\n

The Department of Tourism (DOT) on Tuesday made this announcement during the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the Manila Cruise Port Master Plan and Feasibility Study at Sofitel, Pasay City.<\/p>\n

Signatories include Department of Tourism (DOT) Undersecretary for Tourism Development Benito Bengzon Jr., Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) Chief-Operating-Officer Pocholo Paragas, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) President Arsenio Lizaso.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to build before the end of the President\u2019s term,\u201d Paragas told reporters in an interview.<\/p>\n

Paragas said that the feasibility study alone will take 18 months to complete while construction of the facility will take more or less two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that (port) will take roughly one and a half to two years after the feasibility study and then eventually let\u2019s build the infrastructure around it\u2014a mall, a multi-use facility will take years but at least those can follow,\u201d Paragas said.\u201cOur concern right now for the country is there\u2019s no specific port specifically for tourism,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Paragas said that this port will mark the beginning of increasing international port calls in the country and the promotion of the Philippines as a cruise destination for international cruise lines.<\/p>\n

Moreover, he said that the new port is expected to alleviate traffic from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).\u201cIf one of the reasons we\u2019re doing this is to alleviate stress from the airport I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a reason for us not to have a cruise port in Manila,\u201d Paragas said.<\/p>\n

He said that another reason why Manila was selected was it was the best place to \u201csee the history of the Philippines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s Intramuros, the post office\u2026there\u2019s a huge market for that so we have to have this cruise people go there, see the history of the Philippines and look into our beaches,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Asked if TIEZA will be considering tapping the private sector for the construction of a port facility, Paragas said that it will depend on the feasibility study.\u201cWe\u2019ll base it on the feasibility study but if government can fund it that will be the best. Once the feasibility study comes out, we\u2019ll know the prices and then we will discuss with the economic managers,\u201d the TIEZA chief said.<\/p>\n

Data from the DOT showed that international cruise calls to the Philippines have been growing at an average rate of 27.8 percent over the past years with 56 calls in 2014, 60 calls in 2015, and 72 calls in 2016.<\/p>\n

This year, an estimated 140 cruise calls are expected in the Philippines by yearend mostly in Manila, Boracay, and Palawan due to Hong-Kong based cruise line Star Cruises\u2019 Superstar Virgo having made Manila its home port last March 19 to May 23.\u00a0(PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2014 To meet the growing demand for cruise lines in key Philippine destinations, a cruise port facility will be …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":94578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[6054,27212],"class_list":["post-122985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travel","tag-duterte","tag-manila-cruise-port","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}