The Philippines mounted a warm welcome reception for arriving Chinese tourists in celebration of the Chinese New Year and the continuous influx of Chinese visitors, following the easing of outbound travel restrictions of China.
Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco personally welcomed the batch of visitors arriving onboard Xiamen Airlines flight MF819, together with China’s Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian, and Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Cesar Chiong, Xiamen Air General Manager of Manila Office Yan Tan, in time for the celebration of the Lunar New Year.
The party made sure the guests, about 190 passengers who departed from the Chinese City of Xiamen past 2:00pm and arrived at the country’s main gateway Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 at 4:55pm on January 24, were greeted with the world-renowned Filipino hospitality.
The visitors were presented with leis and gifts from the DOT, MIAA, the Embassy of China in the Philippines, and a Filipino-Chinese private stakeholders organization.
The welcome ceremony was made even more colorful and lively by Filipino bamboo orchestra musicians.
“The arrival of Chinese tourists to the Philippines signals a very auspicious start to the New Year and indicates a positive result of President Bongbong Marcos Jr.’s state visit to China to further the relations between our countries,” Frasco said.
“We anticipate even more Chinese tourists to arrive which will greatly help us in our efforts to transform and to recover the tourism industry.”
“We anticipate even more Chinese tourists to arrive which will greatly help us in our efforts to transform and to recover the tourism industry as our intention is not only to regain our pre-pandemic numbers but to exceed it knowing how the relationship between the Philippines and China will only further improve in the years to come with the stance of both our governments,” the tourism chief added.
The early batch of Chinese visitors made the Philippines the latest country to welcome their return for inbound travel after China lifted restrictions to outbound travels of its nationals. Such a move is seen to positively impact economies as China remains one of the world’s top sources of foreign tourists with high visitor spending.
“With the development of our tourism cooperation, there will be a growing number of Chinese tourists coming to the Philippines.”
“We believe that with the development of our tourism cooperation that there will be a growing number of Chinese tourists coming to the Philippines to enjoy the beauty of this country,” Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian said.
“The recent state visit of President (Ferdinand Marcos) to China, both presidents of China and the Philippines have agreed to make people to people exchanges as one of the four already areas of cooperation and of course during the visits, our tourism cooperation was actually signed so I think that today’s event is also one of the measures to implement the agreement reached by our two leaders,” Ambassador Xilian added.
