{"id":99514,"date":"2017-04-23T20:33:20","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T00:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=99514"},"modified":"2017-04-23T20:33:20","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T00:33:20","slug":"no-major-drop-in-number-of-tourist-arrivals-in-c-visayas-despite-travel-warnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/04\/23\/no-major-drop-in-number-of-tourist-arrivals-in-c-visayas-despite-travel-warnings\/","title":{"rendered":"No major drop in number of tourist arrivals in C. Visayas despite travel warnings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Department of Tourism (DOT) assured this Thursday, noting that any minor decline in tourism numbers in the coming months would not affect the target of acquiring 6.5 to 7 million foreign tourist arrivals by yearend. (Photo: Philippine News Agency<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u2013Tourists continue to visit Central Visayas despite the recent encounter between security forces and a terror group in Bohol and several travel warnings issued against the Philippines.<\/p>\n

The Department of Tourism (DOT) assured this Thursday, noting that any minor decline in tourism numbers in the coming months would not affect the target of acquiring 6.5 to 7 million foreign tourist arrivals by yearend.<\/p>\n

Travel agencies earlier reported a number of cancelled trips from Japan, US, Europe among other countries. However, the DOT explained that this had little effect on overall tourism numbers.<\/p>\n

DOT Secretary Wanda Teo said that cancellations were \u201cminimal\u201d and assured that the agency coordinates with law enforcement authorities to assure the safety of tourists.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time there are travel advisories, tourism numbers lie low for a while. But after a month, tourists return. Cancellations are minimal,\u201d Teo said in a press conference in Makati City.<\/p>\n

Though privy on details, DOT Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. also revealed that a high-profile Japanese TV production team from Kansai is pushing through with its plan to shoot in the Cebu despite concerns on tourism safety.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, several foreign tour operators, including an 80-member English as a second language (ESL) group, also push through with their familiarization tours in Cebu, Bohol, and Iloilo.<\/p>\n

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings in Bohol will also push through as scheduled this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are good indications that the confidence of the overseas traveler is (still) very high,\u201d Bengzon said.<\/p>\n

Despite recent canceled trips from around 150 Korean tourists, Bengzon said that still other Korean tourists decided to push through with their visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day, we get about 3,600 Korean tourists on average. We received a report of 150 cancellations. I think it\u2019s easy enough to conclude whether that has had a significant effect on the flow of arrivals,\u201d Bengzon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not brushing this off. We take this matter very seriously. But it is very clear that there are a lot more tourists that decided to push through with their travel to Philippines,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Fair advisories<\/p>\n

Teo said that she had also coordinated with UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General Taleb Rifai to renew her call to encourage foreign counterparts to issue \u201cfair\u201d travel advisories and eventually lift them.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time there\u2019s kidnapping, we immediately get travel advisories that it\u2019s not safe to travel in the Philippines. This is not exactly true,\u201d Teo said.<\/p>\n

She expressed hope that Rifai would help compel Foreign Affairs ministries in other countries to eventually rethink or lift the travel advisories against the Philippines.<\/p>\n

The Secretary said that this way, the department could also safeguard the local people who are dependent on tourism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2013Tourists continue to visit Central Visayas despite the recent encounter between security forces and a terror group in Bohol and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":99515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95,79],"tags":[6101,18242,18243],"class_list":["post-99514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","category-travel","tag-central-visayas","tag-tourist-arrival","tag-travel-warnings","mauthors-azer-n-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99514","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=99514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}