TOURISM Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco led the Philippine delegation in the 11th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Tourism Ministerial Meeting (TMM) in Thailand where key strategies to accelerate the recovery of travel and tourism in the post-COVID-pandemic were tackled.

This year, the three-day APEC TMM that will end today (Aug. 20) brought together the APEC Tourism Ministers to discuss cooperation in the tourism sector, exchange views, and share information with the objective to revitalize tourism and establish a new tourism direction for the APEC region in a post-pandemic era.

Frasco, during the meeting shared with the APEC Tourism Ministers and heads of the delegations some of the strategies of the Philippines to spur tourism recovery, focusing on the areas of Facilitating Connectivity and Convenience, Equalizing Opportunities, and developing Human Capital.

On Friday, Frasco had bilaterals with H.E Dato’ Sri Hajah Nancy Binti Shukri, Malaysia’s Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) to explore possible continuing collaboration and partnership initiatives between The Philippines and Malaysia.

She shared DOT’s interest to continue the cordial tourism exchanges between the two countries.

Based on the Department’s data, since the Philippines reopened its doors to international travelers in February of this year, there have been 17,797 tourists from Malaysia that came to the Philippines as of August 14.

In August 2001, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) had been signed between the DOT and MOTAC to foster cooperation between Malaysia and the Philippines in the areas of Travel Facilitation; Research and Development; Education and Training; Tourism Investments; and Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE).

The Malaysian Association of Tours and Travel Agents also signed an MOU with the Philippine Travel Agencies Association in October 20, 2001 to facilitate more travel and tourist exchanges between Malaysia and the Philippines.

“We have every intention to continue this partnership between the Philippines and Malaysia. Both our countries have a shared heritage, values, value for family community, and culture. We view these as one of the core strengths of Malaysia. We anticipate that as we continue our partnership, the exchange of best practices on culture and heritage will be some of the key points of our agreement,” the DOT chief said.

“We wish to renew our agreements because we have every reason to visit each other’s country. We intend to learn from your country on the very successful Halal programs. A large part of the population in the Mindanao Region are very interested in Halal tourism,” Frasco added.

The Malaysian market was among the Top 16 international markets of the country in the past five years. Among the ASEAN countries, Malaysia is the Philippines’ 2nd top visitor in 2019.

Shukri responded saying “It’s time for us to promote each other’s country. Malaysia is promoting an ASEAN tourism belt program which includes the Philippines as a neighboring country. We hope to see more collaborations between the Philippines and other countries.”

The Tourism chief also met on Thursday with her counterpart Thailand Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MOTS) Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn on the sidelines of the APEC-TMM.

The two ministers discussed ways to strengthen bilateral tourism initiatives between The Philippines and Thailand.

Frasco requested Ratchakitprakarn to renew the Implementing Program of Cooperation between the Philippines and Thailand on collaborations in the areas of travel facilitation, research and development, education and training, tourism initiatives, human development, employment, and exchange of best practices on anchoring country’s tourism on culture and heritage, among others.

The Thai Minister accepted the invitation.

During the meeting, Frasco also explored the possibility of collaborating with Thailand in the areas of Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions (MICE) Tourism, Education tourism particularly English as Second Language, and food and gastronomy tourism.

“I accept with gratitude the minister’s sentiments saying that we would like more people from Thailand to visit the Philippines to equalize the number of people from the Philippines that visit Thailand. As of August 14, 2022, we have had a little over 1.2 million visitors to the Philippines. Of that number, there have been 6,401 Thai nationals. With your government’s help and our partnership, we look forward to increasing that number and we would welcome you with open arms in the Philippines,” Frasco told Ratchakitprakarn.

In response to the Thailand Minister’s request for help in addressing Thailand’s shortage of workforce in the accommodation industry noting the quality of the Filipino workforce, Frasco invited Thailand to participate in the Tourism Job Fairs to be jointly administered by the Department of Tourism and the Department of Labor and Employment – DOLE.

The Thailand Minister gladly accepted and confirmed their participation.

This, according to Frasco, would bring in a wealth of employment opportunities for Filipinos wanting to work in Thailand.

Frasco also reached out to the tourism stakeholders of Thailand to explore possible collaborations with the industry players to entice more Thai tourists to come to the Philippines.

Recognizing Thailand’s strength as the leading tourism economy in the ASEAN region, Frasco convened the representatives of Thailand’s tourism sectors – leisure, Education Tourism, Dive tourism, MICE, and aviation, to learn and explore best practices in the industry.

Among the topics raised by the participants include the possibility of developing a link between Thailand, Japan, and the Philippines.

The participants likewise expressed their appreciation of the Philippines’ natural sites, particularly its dive destinations and committed to bring in more Thai visitors to the country.

They noted the Philippines’ strength on the portfolios of Education Tourism, particularly English as Second Language (ESL), and Culture and the Arts, specifically on preservation of our heritage and culture.

The attendees welcomed the meeting, a continuation of Frasco’s listening tours as way of reaching out to industry stakeholders to hear the challenges and offer viable solutions that will yield positive results for the tourism industry.

Representing the Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA), one of the biggest outbound tour operators and air ticket sales distribution agencies in Thailand with some 780 members were the organization’s vice presidents: Thanapo Cheewarattanaporn, Wachira Wichaiwatana, and Sitthichai Udomkitthanakul.

Also present were representatives of Esque Lifestyle & Travel; Jubilee Travel Co., Ltd.; Dive Potato; SC World Express; Big World Holiday; Worldwide Agency Co., Ltd.; Abroad Land; Pleione Travel Co., Ltd.; Supertrips Co., Ltd.; All Around Trading & Holidays Co., Ltd.; Kor Pun Gun; Bright Idea; Mango Learning Express; Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific Air (Thailand); Thai Air Asia; and Siam Tourism Group Co., Ltd.

The tourism chief was joined by Deputy Speaker Duke Frasco, Ambassador Millicent Cruz Paredes of the Philippine Embassy in Bangkok, Ms. Beatriz Ines L. Herrera-Davila, Second Secretary and Consul; Verna C. Buensuceso, OIC-Undersecretary for Tourism Development; Ms. Maria Rica C. Bueno, Assistant Secretary for Tourism Regulation, Coordination and Resource Generation and Warner M. Andrada, OIC-Assistant Secretary for Tourism Development.

Participants in the APEC-TMM are tourism ministers and high-ranking officials from APEC economies including Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, The Russian Federation, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States of America, and Viet Nam.

Held every two years, the APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting is the highest decision-making body of the APEC Tourism Sector.

The 11th APEC TMM in Thailand marks the first time that APEC Tourism Ministers physically convened since the 10th APEC TMM hosted by Papua New Guinea in 2018.