Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Wanda Corazon Tulfo-Teo reached out to British and other foreign media present during the Media Address held at the sidelines of the World Travel Market (WTM) 2016, to help intensify interest about the Philippines as a tourism and investment haven.
Secretary Teo said, “We are delighted to be here for the biggest ever Philippine participation in the World Travel Market, considered the most influential and must-attend travel fairs in the world. We are serious in courting the British travel trade and business networks to bring more arrivals and related investments to the Philippines. The United Kingdom (UK) remains to be the biggest source of visitors for the country from this region and we intend to increase our share of this huge market which contributed 35.7 million trips to the total global outbound figure last year.”
Tourism Attaché Gerry Panga also proudly presented the DOT-UK achievements and ongoing campaigns with staunch partners who have helped sustain the country’s positive image and competitiveness as a tourism destination.
These include Philippine Airlines (PAL) which has been involved in the Station Domination campaigns, PH Tourism Weekend at Potter’s Field and VPA Holidays. It has also committed to support future selling missions and familiarization trips for media and tour operators. PAL is the only airline offering direct access to Manila from London and the rest of Europe.
Similarly, Singapore Airlines which ran the First Stop Singapore, Next Stop Philippines campaign, successfully delivered over 1.2 million impressions.
Expedia, on the other hand, the largest online travel agent portal worldwide, was able to generate around 18,000 bookings to the Philippines last year. It hopes to improve on the conversion with fresh content and offerings from participating properties.
STA Travel is on its second year partnering with the DOT, targeting the youth market. Last year, it was able to yield 2,200 visitors from the UK and more than 7,000 from key European and Australian markets.
Beautiful Destinations employs the strength of its social media reach, having more than 7.4 million subscribers in Instagram. It intends to help spread the country’s exciting travel opportunities through the compelling content shared online.
There was wide media coverage throughout WTM and post-event throughout travel trade press from TTG, Travel News Daily, Travel Weekly, Travel Bulletin and PATA. PH press in the UK also captured the event entirely.
“We thank these marketing partners for helping us position the Philippines as a top-of-mind destination. Again, we could only be as successful with the support of our media friends who continue to help us spread the good news and the compelling reasons to visit our beautiful country among the British travelers,” Secretary Teo concluded.
