MANILA – Banking on a steady increase in Filipinos traveling overseas, the Hong Kong government said it targets to hit the one million tourist arrivals annually from the Philippines starting 2019.
Hong Kong is leveraging on the steady growth of Philippine tourists, said Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) Southeast Asia Regional Director Raymond Chan.
“It doesn’t mean we have to hit the one-million mark in 2018, but 2019 maybe,” he said in an interview with GMA News Online in Pasay City.
More than 900,000 Filipinos visited Hong Kong in 2017, the highest tourist arrivals in Hong Kong from any Southeast Asian country.
In January to May this year, Chan said 370,000 Filipinos already visited Hong Kong.
“For the first five months we have a slight growth in terms of overnight arrivals, the visitors who stayed overnight in Hong Kong – 1.7 percent,” he said.
“Hopefully the growth will become bigger in the next half of the year,” he said, noting that the HKTB expects to surpass last year’s arrivals.
Chan noted the tourism board is now leveraging on several tourism initiatives to encourage more Filipinos to fly out to Hong Kong.
“We do see the potential and growth trend so we want to leverage on different initiatives to promote in the Philippines, to make a one-million mark in the future,” he said.
A major growth driver, Chan said, will be additional flights from the Philippines to Hong Kong with airlines launching direct flights from Davao later this year.
“We have a lot of increased capacity from the airlines to the major airports – Manila, Clark, and Cebu. And in September, we’ll have Davao as well,” Chan said. (GMA News)
