The Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) wants to formalize an agreement with its South Korean counterpart to boost operations of travel agencies as the industry is now expecting a slow travel resumption in the coming months.
The PTAA is also pushing for 100 percent visa free entry to South Korea.
In his presentation during the Korea Tourism Organization travel webinar, PTAA president Ritchie Tuaño said they want to negotiate an agreement with the Korean Association of Travel Agents (KATA) at the soonest possible time.
“We would highly appreciate the drafting and signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) wherein both sides will commit to only dealing with accredited travel agencies and tour operators that are members of both our associations,” Tuaño said.
He said an MOU with KATA would be a first for the association in terms of same-level international partnership and would boost the ground work that is being done to slowly revitalize local travel agencies operations.
He added that South Korea was a prime consideration because of the volume of tourist traffic from both sides.
In describing the ideal agreement, Tuaño said the MOU could also possibly cover items including standardized tour costing based on itineraries, recommended list of destinations per travel segment, and the setting up of a complaints and grievance committee.
“Two-way tourism between our two countries has been growing over the past 10 years. We want that growth trajectory to continue long term,” he said.
Currently, Filipinos are allowed visa free entry to Jeju Island, one of the prime tourist destinations in South Korea. There is also the new five-day visa entry that comes with the stipulation that Filipino tourists enter through a major city and exit through Jeju Island.
“While we commend the maximum five-day visa free entry, both our governments must work on a complete(ly) visa free entry,” Tuaño said while citing the Taiwan model which after giving visa free entry in 2017 has seen a rapid increase in Filipino tourists.
To note, South Korea tops the list of the country’s top tourist markets in terms of international visitor arrivals in the previous years.
Last year, 1.99 million Koreans visited the country. It marked the 10th straight year with them as the Philippines biggest market growing by 168.60 percent from 10 years back when only 740,622 Korean tourists visited the Philippine in 2010.
Meanwhile, 503,867 Filipino tourists visited South Korea last year making it the eighth biggest market after China, Japan, Taiwan, United States of America, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Vietnam. Growth in arrivals from 10 years back was at 69.39 percent when there were only 297,452 Filipino tourists to South Korea.
The PTAA believes that a combination of the stimulus package from Bayanihan 2 and airline refunds can aid in restarting travel agencies operations in the country.