The Russians are Coming in the Philippines

Cebu City, January 14, 2006

The Department of Tourism is expecting Russia to become one of the country's leading tourist markets in 2006 as Russian tourists come in droves to the country.

"Since the first week of this year, a big number of tourists from Russia have started arriving to spend a half-month-long vacation in the country, "Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano said.

Durano noted that two groups of Russian tourists arrived in the country aboard Kras Air, which now offers chartered flights from the cities of Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk in the Siberian Federal Region to Cebu.

Chartered flights are now being offered in Russia, Durano said, to accommodate the growing number of tourists wanting to visit the Philippines.

According to Durano, the Russian tourists are now visiting the islands of Cebu, Bohol and Boracay.

Durano noted that the visit of the 334 Russian tourists is a clear manifestation of the success of the DOT's promotion campaign to lure more foreign tourists, particularly from Eastern Europe.

"Our tourism campaign in Russia has certainly generated a lot of interest in the Philippines, and we would like to make sure this interest is sustained by coming up with new marketing strategies that will keep the country on equal footing, if not better, with its Southeast Asian neighbors, especially now that Southeast Asian countries are making quite an impression among the Russians,"the tourism chief said.

Durano noted that the DOT opted to include Russia in the country's growing list of new target markets because of its booming economy and its people's fascination with Asia as an exotic destination.

"Russian travelers have also been ranked by the World Tourism Organization as tenth in the list of the world's top spenders,"Durano added as he pointed out that tourism is now the fastest growing sector there after 70 years of travel restrictions.

He further cited a recent survey indicating that Russia is expected to rank 10th by 2020 with respect to tourism producing countries with its increasing number of travelers.

To show its determination to capture a large share of Russia's outbound travelers, Durano said, the DOT launched the first Philippine guidebook in Russian.

"The year 2005 bore witness to an increase of 180 percent in arrivals from the Commonwealth of Independent States to the Philippines, which is enough reason for the DOT to be confident that, by doubling our efforts, we will most likely be able to achieve twice as much growth rate by the end of 2006,"Durano said.