Philippines and China sign a tourism implementation deal

On January 4, 2023, the Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT) and its counterpart Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China signed an Implementation Program on Tourism Cooperation to push for bilateral tourism cooperation between the Philippines and China.

The ceremonial signing was one of the highlights of the three-day state visit of President Ferdinand  Marcos, Jr. in the Chinese capital Beijing, where Frasco is one of the Cabinet officials who joined the President.

The Implementation Program aims to realize the goals stated in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Philippines and China back in September 2002.
Under the five-year cooperation, both countries have agreed to encourage and support the exchange of their respective administrators and tourism professionals in order to strengthen the mutual development in the field of hotels, resorts, cruise, port, tourism products, and other related industries and competency standards. It also covered the cooperation on tourism safety where both parties will make joint measures to guarantee the rights, interests, and safety of tourists visiting each other’s country.

Both the Philippines and China are expected to support each other’s tourism departments and enterprises in holding travel fairs, tourism exhibitions and other promotion initiatives, to inform the travelling public about their products and services, at the same time, cultivate awareness of the environment protection and sustainable development in the growth of their respective tourism industries.

A technical working group composed of officials from the DOT and China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China will meet at least once a year or whenever necessary to further discuss the implementation covered in the agreement.