Tourism Breaking News
As the Philippines prepares to open its borders to the GCC countries an insightful webinar took place with two experts sharing their valuable information with stakeholders in the Philippines about selling the destination in the new normal era.
At the inception, Verna C Buensuceso – Undersecretary Tourism Development Department of Tourism Philippines shared that as the borders will open to the four destinations in the GCC namely, KSA, UAE, Oman and Kuwait a two part webinar series will be conducted in order to navigate the new normal in the Middle East and understand the market trends and provide information to the stakeholders to keep themselves updated with regard to the way forward in this very important market for the Philippines. She further reiterated that their requirement at present was to make Philippines a top of the mind outbound destination for the GCC travelers as they seek new destinations especially at this point of time.
The first session focused on how to sell the Philippines to the GCC which had two of the most senior experts in the industry in the GCC in UAE and KSA in particular. Nasir Jamal Khan – CEO – Al Naboodah Travel and Tarique Khatri Executive Vice President Center of Excellence Seera Group. Moderator of the Session San Jeet Market Representative of Philippine Tourism in the Middle East shared that during the pre- pandemic era, Philippines received a substantial number of visitors from the GCC and the aim at present is to reposition Philippines to attract more numbers from this market as it has all the offerings and requirements.
One of the first questions raised by San Jeet Moderator of the session to Nasir Jamal Khan CEO Al Naboodah was the behavior of the aviation sector. Khan shared, “over the past eight months we have seen confidence built among travelers as the aviation industry has been making a positive come back especially with Emirates operating to 80% alongside Air Arabia, Etihad etc. Singapore Airlines is back on track and we are heading to 2019 or better than that levels in terms of aviation. The flights to India has also increased from before as we are the GSA for GoAir – there has been an addition of flights than before the pandemic which makes it positive at present.”
Tarique Khatri Executive Vice President Center of Excellence Seera Group opened by stating, “People are now open to travel, they do want to travel especially in this part of the world. We have been ensuring that the travelers are well informed of the current changes in the industry whether it is border closing or quarantine regulations we have a special service which disseminates important information on real time which has helped the travelers considerably over the past months.”
Khan and Khatri brought out the key points during the discussion about how the destination should promote to the GCC travelers. The main takeaways were that they should target youth and luxury travelers. Khatri spoke from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia point of view where the youth in the kingdom always opt for new destinations to ensure that they discover adventure, events, food, nature etc. Khan added to this by stating that luxury tourism is another important segment for the travelers from this region. Khan and Khatri ended the session sharing that the most importantly just like Dubai opened to the world, Philippines should look at working with the right partners to reposition the destination and attract the travelers. As the role of the travel agent has become imperative at present the best way to ensure a smooth network is to partner with those who are proactive that can provide safety, adhere to protocols and responsible to ensure that the clients are well looked after right throughout the journey and are able to enjoy an unforgettable experience.
