Thanks to the development over the recent 30 years, the Chinese tourism industry has continuously expanded its scale, with above 200,000 tourism enterprises, 13,000 star hotels, more than 10,000 well-known scenic spots and 17,000 travel agencies. The staff directly involved in the tourism industry amount to 6.48 million. Up till now, China has continually opened up 124 countries and regions as the destination for outbound travel of Chinese tourist groups, of which 81 have been in formal operation. In 2005, China received 46.8 million person times of inbound tourists staying overnight, up 12% over the previous year, with USD 29.2 billion of international tourism revenues, up 13%. The number of domestic tourists last year exceeded 1.2 billion person times, increasing by 10%, with 31 million person times of outbound tourists, increasing by 7.5%. In accordance with the forecast of the World Tourism Organization, China will become the first tourist destination and the fourth source country of tourists in the world by 2020.

China and the Philippines have shared a long history of mutual contacts. As the bilateral friendly relations developing further, the tourism cooperation has become an indispensable part of the overall cooperation between both sides, playing a more and more important role. Since Sino-Fil tourism contacts started long ago, the bilateral tourism administrations and enterprises have kept in close touch and thus a sound foundation has been laid for the tourism cooperation with great potential. In 1997, China formally kicked off the operation of sending tourist groups to travel in the Philippines which became one of the earliest destinations for outbound Chinese tourist groups. More than 40,000 Chinese tourists traveled in your beautiful country in 1998. Since tour in the Philippines has constituted a comparatively matured route, the number of Chinese tourists visiting the country has been gradually increasing every year. Up till now, more than 500,000 person times of Chinese tourists have visited the Philippines. The country has been No. 9 among all the destinations for outbound Chinese tourists.

As a destination of Chinese tourists, the Philippines has such major advantages as its early opening-up, short distance and relatively lower prices, however, due to the increase of the destinations, the number of Chinese tourists traveling in this country has grown at a limited rate. In 2005, the number of Chinese tourists who had the Philippines as their first leg of their outbound trip stood at 119,000, up 16% over the previous year, much lower than 370,000, 480,000, and 600,000 respectively of Chinese tourists traveling in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The main reasons are as follows: firstly, the choices of the outbound trip routes for Chinese tourists have been gradually diversified, thus the requirements for the destinations on what they can offer to the tourists have been more demanding and a simple sightseeing tour has failed to satisfy their needs; secondly, the earthquake and tsunami in 2004 and the bird flu afterward, together with the unsafe situation for tours in some regions in the Philippines, have also deterred some Chinese tourists; thirdly, the accessibility has to be improved, since many Chinese tourists have not selected the country as the first leg regardless of the short distance, resulting from the limited direct flights between both countries; fourthly, Chinese tourists have not acquired enough information about the tourism products in the Philippines.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to its tourism cooperation with the Philippines and is willing to encourage more of its citizens to have a tour in that country. In a bid to further promote the Sino-Fil tourism exchanges and cooperation, China National Tourism Administration Bureau has already put forward the following suggestions:

a. The bilateral tourism administrations should enhance dialogues and communications so as to strengthen the mutual understanding and trust, take an advantage of the existing mechanism and platform, keep on enriching contents and increasing manners of cooperation, and exchange the latest information and policies punctually. China National Tourism Administration Bureau will vigorously implement the tourism cooperation act plan signed by both sides and the other documents to achieve a closer cooperation.

b. Based on the status quo of the Chinese tourists traveling in the Philippines, the tourism administrations and enterprises in the country may carefully analyze the tourist source market in China, and develop new products to satisfy the needs of the tourists at different levels, and meanwhile further promote the Philippine tourism resources in China so that the Chinese tourists will better understand the country.

c. Both sides should encourage the bilateral airlines to open up more direct flights between the two countries and the tourism enterprises to conduct more mutual exchanges and cooperation.