18 May 2017 – The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), in coordination with the Department of Tourism (DOT), successfully conducted a Philippine Sales Mission in Singapore last 16 May at the Mandarin Orchard.
The sales mission aimed to strengthen the market position of the Philippines as an ideal leisure and Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) destination, specifically for incentive travel planner and event organizers.
The delegation from the Philippines was led by TPB Deputy Chief Operating Officer (COO) Maricon B. Ebron and joined by representatives of Philippine Airlines (PAL) and thirty (30) private sector partners participating in both the leisure and MICE segments of the sales mission.
Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Antonio A. Morales delivered the welcome address, where he expressed the hope that the sales mission will be able to translate the positive impact of regional economic integration in ASEAN into concrete benefits for the Philippine tourism industry.
“The Philippines is also taking a giant leap in developing its infrastructure to offer new facilities that can be used as venues for meetings, conventions, exhibitions, and even for tournaments. The Philippine government continues to be committed in the improvement of its transport and communication networks to cope with the demands of a burgeoning tourism industry,” Ambassador Morales added.
Ms. Marie Jemma B. Saranillo, PAL’s Country Manager for Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, then presented updates on PAL’s latest services to improve connectivity between the Philippine sand Singapore.
As Singapore only has 2.95% market share of foreign tourists coming to the Philippines, as of January-February 2017, TPB Deputy COO Ebron said that the Philippines currently targets 183,099 Singaporean arrivals to PH in 2017, as compared to 2016’s 176,057 figure.
“To retain strong growth for Singaporean arrivals in the future, we should diversify the market and develop new destinations,” Ms. Ebron said as a challenge to the PH tourism industry.
This includes targeting high-end and niche markets, creating attractive programs and activities to lure the market, enabling provinces to link as clusters and tourism circuits thereby including as many provinces as possible in tour packages, and creating thematic activity trails to excite travel buffs.
