By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo / Special to the BusinessMirror
THE Philippines and China signed on Thursday an agreement to implement the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on tourism cooperation signed between both countries in 2002.
The signing of the tourism-cooperation program for 2017 to 2022 helps normalize diplomatic ties between both countries, which was earlier marked by an informal ban on Chinese leisure travels to the Philippines.
The agreement on an implementation program, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror, provides, among others, a framework to encourage investments in tourism infrastructure, and a scheme to increase tourism traffic in both countries.
This follows the launch by China Eastern Airlines’s new charter flights between Guangzhou and Laoag, Ilocos Norte, which promised to send about 400 Chinese tourists a week.
Its first flight to Laoag will take place on November 1, traditionally observed as All Saints’ Day in the Philippines. The flight will carry more than 100 passengers, according to a news statement from the Department of Tourism (DOT). Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo attended the launch along with major tourism stakeholders, which was held at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou.
The Jimei Group, a Macau-based casino junket operator, which now owns Fort Ilocandia and Resort Casino in Laoag, and the Fontana Hot Springs Leisure Park in Clark, Pampanga, initiated the charter flights. The chartered flights between Guangdong and Laoag will run twice a week.
“The tourists will stay at Fort Ilocandia, where they could play golf, and at the casino. They could also explore Ilocos Norte’s sand dunes, cinematic landscapes, beaches and historical sites,” Teo said.
With the launch of the chartered flights, the DOT chief expressed optimism the agency could surpass its 6-million visitor-arrivals target for 2016.
The Jimei Group is chaired by Jack Lam, the so-called godfather of gaming, and is known as one of the largest VIP junket-casino operators in Asia. He brings players to Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Macau, as well as owns the casino at the Mandarin Oriental in Macau.
Ironically, Teo’s brother, broadcast journalist Erwin Tulfo, lambasted Lam in April 2015 in his column in another paper, accusing Lam of operating unlicensed online casinos.
“Lam, who owns the Fontana Leisure and Water Park in the former US Air Base in Angeles City, has reportedly ‘issued sublicenses’ to Chinese and Korean nationals to operate online gambling in the said resort,” Tulfo said.
“Apparently, Lam’s activities have gained the ire of certain officials of the Bureau of Immigration [BI], as well as those of Pagcor [Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.], as these clandestine operations involve foreigners who have no proper visas and work permits,” he added. (https://bit.ly/2e3r9PS)
The DOT is targeting Chinese visitor arrivals to reach 632,947 in 2016, and 729,715 in 2017. In 2015 Chinese tourists in the Philippines grew by 24.3 percent to 490,841. From January to July 2016, Chinese arrivals in the Philippines grew by 64 percent to 422,801.
Teo signed the implementation agreement on the tourism-cooperation program on behalf of the Philippines, with China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) Chairman Li Jinzao representing the Beijing government. President Duterte, who is on his first state visit to China, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, witnessed the signing of the agreement.
Both governments have agreed to “a working group to implement” the tourism-cooperation program, to be composed of officials from the DOT and the CNTA. The working group “will meet at least once a year, whenever necessary, to further discuss the implementation of the tourism programs, as well as the facilitation of the execution of the undertakings.”
The document also provides the exchange of tourism professionals, “to strengthen the mutual development in the field of hotels, resorts, cruise, port, tourism products and other related industries and competency standards;” the exchange of relevant tourism information and statistics; hold joint workshops and trainings; step up their cooperation in tourism safety and quality assurance; and launch joint promotion programs in identified markets.
“The participants will support each other’s tourism departments and enterprise in holding travel fairs, tourism exhibitions and other promotion initiatives, to inform the traveling public on the other participant’s tourism products and services, as well as cultivate awareness of environment protection and sustainable development in the growth of the participants’ tourism industries,” the agreement added.
The document also requires disputes over the program to be “settled amicably” through consultations and negotiations through diplomatic channels.
China is the largest source of outbound tourists in the world, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Last year around 120 million Chinese traveled overseas and spent some $500 billion, according to the CNTA.