{"id":63109,"date":"2015-10-19T20:55:22","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T01:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=63109"},"modified":"2015-10-19T20:55:22","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T01:55:22","slug":"dot-phl-sees-positive-tourism-growth-from-south-korea-after-air-talks-next-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/10\/19\/dot-phl-sees-positive-tourism-growth-from-south-korea-after-air-talks-next-month\/","title":{"rendered":"DOT: PHL sees positive tourism growth from South Korea after air talks next month"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ShutterStock\"<\/a>
ShutterStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA — Air talks between the Philippines and South Korea in November is seen to result in a positive trend for the growth of Korean tourists to the country, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said on Monday.<\/p>\n

DOT Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. did not give any figures on the department\u2019s expected growth in tourism numbers but expressed optimism that these air talks will \u201cbe good for tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bengzon, however, said that no official date in November has been set for air talks which will be held in one of the country\u2019s prime tourist destinations: Puerto Princesa, Palawan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say. It really depends on the studies that the airlines will conduct,\u201d Bengzon told reporters when asked how many Korean tourists are expected to visit the country if air talks eventually result in slots for local of foreign carriers to operate flights between the two countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the travel patterns of Koreans, many of them enter the country through Manila but we have large numbers entering through Mactan, Cebu; charter flights into Kalibo and other secondary destinations which can be part of new charter programs,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Data from the DOT showed that as of August 2015, South Korea, which is still the top contributor of arrivals, brought in 901,749 visitors. This is a 15.04 percent increase compared to the 783,852 visitors in 2014.<\/p>\n

It also showed that visitors from South Korea also provided the biggest contribution to visitor earnings for the country with Php 8.85 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cKorea is our number one market and it\u2019s very important for us to always look at the capacity situation. When either side feels that there is a need to increase flight frequency, the number of seats, then we go back to the negotiating table,\u201d Bengzon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are having it in Puerto Princesa. Normally, we have air talks in capital city. The objective is to showcase the huge potential of Pureto Princesa and the surrounding areas to the Korean outbound market. We would like to have direct flight from Korean into Puerto Princesa,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The DOT official said that it was the department\u2019s \u201cstrategy\u201d to highlight secondary destinations to encourage the mounting of flights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that we have successful air talks and we can convince either side\u2014Korean or Philippine carriers\u2014to launch flights into Puerto Princesa,\u201d Bengzon said.<\/p>\n

Bengzon also said that to date, there are no other air talks scheduled until the end of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA — Air talks between the Philippines and South Korea in November is seen to result in a positive trend …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":16494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-business","mauthors-azer-n-parrocha","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63109","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=63109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}