PHILIPPINE NEWS SERVICE– ABOUT 40 Filipino classic films will be shown at the Paris Film Festival by the last week of July this year to sway more European tourists to visit the Philippines.
Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano bared the effort is part of its intensification of the film tourism being pushed by the Department of Tourism (DOT).
The DOT is closely cooperating with the Film Development Council of the Philippines to make the country one of the world’s film capital.
Only selected films showcasing positive values and beautiful tourist destinations will only be shown at the filmfest, it was bared.
Several of the country’s contemporary and popular movie actresses and actors will be part of the delegation to the Paris filmfest, according to tourism Undersecretary Ed Jarque.
The Filipino films is hoped to be the medium to convince some of the world’s top producers to make the Philippines as sites for their film locations and for them to have their vacation in the country, the DOT official said.
The DOT is also eyeing the Indian tourist market through the Mumbai film industry also known as the multi-million dollar worth Bollywood to reach out to India’s affluent travel market.
PopCorn Motion Picture of Mumbai has tied up with the Philippine Motion Picture Studio to shoot a movie here.
Yash Raj Film has also conducted their location oculars in Cebu, Boracay, Palawan.
By end of this month, Jarque bared that two representative from Mumbai are coming to the Philippines to finalize details of a full length movie featuring our tourist destinations and local film stars and crew.
The Indian market is among the country’s top big spenders along with Germany, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Hong Kong, Denmark and Russia.
Meanwhile, Durano predicts another “promising year” by end of 2008 for the tourism business owing to a strong first quarter start for the sector, posting about $1.022 billion in tourism spend.
The tourist spend, meaning the tourism receipts from January to March represented 858.244 arrivals to the Philippines, up by 8.5 percent over the previous year’s total of 790,888 arrivals for the same period, Durano said.
Among the top three tourist markets, China emerged as the biggest star posting a very encouraging increase of 33.0 percent at 48,619 arrivals compared to last year’s 36,568.