By Kris M. Crismundo
MANILA, March 20 (PNA) — The Philippines is urged to hasten developments in infrastructure in order to achieve the government’s goal of making the country as the meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions (MICE) tourism hub in Southeast Asia.
KMC MAG Group Inc. head of operations and investments Jose Carmelo Porciuncula told reporters that infrastructure remains a challenge for the country to attain its goal of 10 million foreign tourist arrivals by 2016.
“This is a wonderful target for the country but there is a challenge with current infrastructure including our airports,” Porciuncula said.
“But there are lot of initiatives outside Metro Manila for redevelopment and expansion of airports — that will aid this,” he added.
Moreover, he said the government’s move for tourism destination clusters will also help to achieve its goal of being a MICE hub in the region.
Establishing tourism economic zones will also push development in the industry particularly building hotels.
To date, the country has 18 tourism ecozones.
Porciuncula also noted that the new international routes to and from Manila is also a gain for the country’s tourism.
New international routes to and from Manila include Istanbul-Manila via Turkish Airlines, Jakarta-Manila via Garuda Airlines, New York-Manila via Philippine Airlines, Xiamen-Jinjian-Manila via Xiamen Air, and Addis Ababa-Manila via Ethiopian Airlines. (PNA)