The Philippines and South Korea have agreed to expand flight entitlements by 10.5 percent in a bid to serve the rising tourism between the two countries.
Civil Aeronautics Board executive director Carmelo Arcilla said the Philippine air panel and its counterpart in South Korea expanded their air service agreement, adding 3,000 seat entitlements per week from the existing 28,500 seat entitlements a week.
The Philippine negotiating panel was composed of officials from the CAB, Departments of Transportation and Communications, Tourism and Foreign Affairs, as well as from Clark International Airport Corp. and representatives of local airline companies.
In April 2012, the Philippines and South Korea agreed to increase seat entitlements to 28,500 per week from 19,000 passengers a week.
Arcilla said South Korea was a stable market and the number one source of tourism for the Philippines.
“We are hitting 1.1 million Korean tourists annually,” Arcilla said.
Local airlines that have flights to Korea are Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines and AirAsia Zest,while Korean Air, Jin Air, Asiana Airlines and Air Busan fly to the Philippines.
Data from the Tourism Department showed arrivals from Korea posted another record as the market reached 1.1 million in the first 10 months of the year, up 14.7 percent year-on-year.
Korea is also the top visitor generating market with P4.57 billion
The Philippines has so far completed air talks with United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Australia, Qatar and Turkey this year.
The government’s air talks are aligned with the priorities of the Department of Tourism to meet the government’s tourist arrivals target of 10 million by 2016.
The Philippines recorded total inbound foreign visitors of 4.39 million in the January-to-October period, up 11.3 percent from 3.96 million year-on-year.
Besides Korea, the top markets for the Philippines are United States of America with 636,658 visitors; Japan, 417,147; China, 415,868; Australia, 188,971; Singapore, 150,405; Malaysia, 129,120; United Kingdom, 123,414 and Canada, 120,903.
Other high growth markets include Spain with 19,208; New Zealand, 15,724; France, 37,135; Saudi Arabia, 44,339; Netherlands, 22,620; Hong Kong, 104,075.
The Tourism Department said the Philippines will likely meet its 5.2 million foreign tourist arrivals target this year after the number of visitors grew by double digits in the first 10 months.
Tourism Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. said the government was aiming for six million foreign tourists in 2016, lower than the original target of 10 million visitors.
Revenues generated from tourism activities from January to October rose 8.24 percent to P186.89 billion from P172.66 billion last year.
