{"id":44851,"date":"2015-03-13T22:30:09","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T14:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=44851"},"modified":"2015-03-13T22:30:09","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T14:30:09","slug":"apart-from-visit-the-philippines-dot-exec-reveals-why-2015-is-crucial-for-phl-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/03\/13\/apart-from-visit-the-philippines-dot-exec-reveals-why-2015-is-crucial-for-phl-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"Apart from &#8216;Visit the Philippines,&#8217; DOT exec reveals why 2015 is crucial for PHL tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/visit-philippines-2015-video-department-of-tourism.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-43685\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/visit-philippines-2015-video-department-of-tourism.jpg\" alt=\"visit-philippines-2015-video-department-of-tourism\" width=\"600\" height=\"314\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/visit-philippines-2015-video-department-of-tourism.jpg 600w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/visit-philippines-2015-video-department-of-tourism-300x157.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>MANILA &#8212; The Department of Tourism\u2019s \u201cVisit the Philippines 2015\u201d (VPY2015) campaign is not the only reason why this year should be considered \u201ccrucial\u201d for Philippine tourism, according to a DOT official.<\/p>\n<p>DOT Undersecretary for Tourism Development Benito Bengzon Jr. said that although the agency\u2019s event-centric campaign VPY2015 is expected to strengthen the country\u2019s brand image, there is more to tourism than marketing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c2015 is going to be a very crucial year for Philippine tourism, apart from the fact that we\u2019re celebrating VPY2015,\u201d Bengzon said in a press conference.<\/p>\n<p>The tourism official stressed that 2015 is also a year for major tourism infrastructure projects launched by the Aquino administration to finally come to completion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost of the tourism infrastructure projects in the past years are expected to be completed this year,\u201d Bengzon said. \u201cWe will soon be able to have a capacity to put the Philippines at par with our neighboring countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hotels, airports, seaports that we have been longing for\u2026these are all exciting things to look forward to,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>To recall, 2014 began with the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) spending PhP1.3- billion for a project to improve the 30-year-old Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1.<\/p>\n<p>Transport Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said last December that the rehabilitation of NAIA Terminal 1 will be finalized before May 2015, or a few months&#8217; later.<\/p>\n<p>The airport, although currently undergoing continuous rehab, now sports new facilities, including flight information display boards, check-in counters, weighing and feeder conveyors, four new chillers, renovated lavatories and better lighting.<\/p>\n<p>Bengzon noted that this year, the agency is also expecting its five-star ratings in its new quality assurance and accreditation standards system to be applied.<\/p>\n<p>These standards are expected to drive hotels and resorts in the country to improve their services and accommodations and meet globally-accepted quality standards and practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA &#8212; The Department of Tourism\u2019s \u201cVisit the Philippines 2015\u201d (VPY2015) campaign is not the only reason why this year &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":43685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,95,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ph","category-travel","mauthors-azer-n-parrocha","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44851","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}