February 10, 2023 | 12:00 AM
TOKYO — President Marcos said yesterday that the Philippine government will lobby to “lift or limit” Japan’s travel warning for the country’s main tourist destinations in an effort to revive a pandemic-hit tourism industry.
The president made the remarks during a high-level roundtable meeting with Japanese tourism stakeholders and senior Philippine government officials, including Tourism Secretary Cristina Frasco, according to a statement released by the Department of Tourism.
“The Philippines and Japan have a lot that we can share and learn from each other. But most importantly, we note that in order to further our countries’ mutual friendship and interests, we must first be open to each other’s people,” Marcos said. “With this, we are working hard to lobby the Japanese government to lift or limit travel warnings for major tourist destinations in the Philippines,” he said.
However, the DOT did not specify which destinations in the Philippines the Japanese government has issued adverse travel warnings. Marcos arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday, starting a five-day official visit.
The President also pushed for the promotion of educational tourism between Japan and the Philippines, with a special focus on the exchange of students and professionals from tourism-related institutions.
The Chief Executive invites Japanese students to study English in the Philippines.
“Filipinos are known to be citizens of the world. Filipinos are fluent in English and this is considered one of our main strengths and one of our main selling points when it comes to educational tourism. It allows us to easily work in other countries and communication. And where better to learn English than in the Philippines,” the president said.
To capitalize on the country’s growing tourism industry, Marcos said his government ensured that both hard and soft infrastructure, from roads and bridges, to medical facilities to clean water supply, are well developed.
He also pointed to his government’s aggressive infrastructure efforts aimed at improving road networks and internet connectivity in tourist destinations.
As of Jan. 30, 2022, Japanese ranked sixth among foreign tourists in the Philippines.
“As a nation that recognizes our success linked to the success of our neighbors like Japan, working together to boost tourism in our own country is critical to economic recovery,” Marcos said.
In his first State of the Union address, Marcos identified tourism as one of his administration’s top priorities.
In the pre-pandemic period, the president pointed to the contribution of tourism to the country’s gross domestic product at 12.9 percent, or close to 13 percent.
“We are banking on the potential to reshape the industry and make it one of the main economic drivers of the country. We are heading towards recovery and I assure you that last year we had more than 2.65 million foreign tourists, which is The initial goal of 1.7 million was exceeded,” Marcos said.
