by magnolia_eic | Jan 12, 2011 | Headlines, National News
Despite the spate of negative travel advisories on the Philippines, the number of foreign
arrivals totaled 3,451,668 in 2010, or 19.5 percent higher than the 2,887,303 who came to the
country in the previous year, according to the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
Immigration officer-in-charge Ronaldo Ledesma said the negative advisories by foreign
governments warning their citizens against going to the Philippines did not have any impact
at all. He said foreign arrivals even peaked during the last quarter of the year, when most of
the advisories were issued due to alleged threats of terror attacks in the country.
BI records showed that from 188,028 foreign visitor arrivals last September, the number
increased steadily to 204,779 in October, 218,482 in November, and 265,651 in December.
Ledesma noted that the BI statistics are consistent with the tourism department’s target of
3.3 million tourist arrivals in 2010. The number pertains to all international travelers, including
tourists, investors, expatriates, students, and balikbayans who acquired foreign citizenship.
BI Immigration Regulation Division chief Alberto Braganza said that of the 3.4 million
foreigners who came last year, about 80 percent or 2.7 million arrived at the NAIA, while the
rest were admitted in other ports such as Mactan, Clark and Davao. (PIA)
by magnolia_eic | Nov 24, 2010 | Headlines, National News
President Benigno S. Aquino Jr. expressed his dissatisfaction with the proposed tourism slogan Pilipinas kay Ganda saying the ”stakeholders themselves were not happy about it.”
In a press conference during the call on him by international boxing icon, Manny Pacquiao at the Premier Guest House, the President said “he met with the stakeholders recently and they showed their discontent over the new slogan.”
“Maybe we do not have to fine tune the slogan but look for something more appropriate. There was an old slogan, though still acceptable to many, but I tasked Tourism Secretary Bert Lim to fix it and find a new one based on the blue print of the tourism program and I will review all the details,” the President told reporters.
On Friday night, the President said he recently met with Secretary Lim to discuss the details of the master plan. “Some of it I can’t really reveal because we are still embarking on a non traditional approach in trying to really promote tourism in the country.”
Among them is the recognition of the assets that we have, such as the seafarers, who the
President said are the single biggest nationality flying the world’s oceans.
The President said the DoT submitted a master plan that contains a lot of changes. “I will first look at every detail that they placed in that master plan,” he added.
He said there should have been more research and focused group discussions in working out
the logo and the slogan before the launch. (PCOO)
