{"id":101,"date":"2019-10-09T13:09:32","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T13:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=101"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:32:15","slug":"philippines-invests-in-infrastructure-to-boost-cruise-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-invests-in-infrastructure-to-boost-cruise-tourism","title":{"rendered":"Philippines invests in infrastructure to boost cruise-tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Philippines wants to attract more cruise ships to its ports and be part of Asia\u2019s growing cruise-tourism industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Over the years, this Southeast Asian nation has been overcome by its neighbours in attracting cruise visitors. Partly, due to bad infrastructure. However, that\u2019s bound to change as the country aims to build more ports and officials focus on cruise tourism as a key source of arrivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the country has been facing an economic slowdown, it sees tourism as key focus of efforts to boost growth<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. It accounted for 12.7% of the Philippines\u2019 gross domestic product last year, beating the government\u2019s goal of 10% by 2022. Furthermore, Government officials are revising up the targets in the country\u2019s tourism development plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Cruise tourism has incredible potential,\u201d<\/em> said Benito Bengzon<\/strong>, Tourism Under Secretary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile our Asian neighbours have the advantage of a regional land connectivity, our archipelago is ideal for cruise tourism.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cruise tourism brings large numbers of people to concentrated areas for brief periods, multiplying and focusing the economic impact.\u201cThese cruise ports will allow more access to the Philippines and encourage shorter itineraries from north Asian markets like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan,\u201d<\/em> Bengzon said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, during a recent trade show, government officials and representatives of major cruise lines discussed the possibility of adding the Philippines to Asian itineraries from 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans moving ahead<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCruise calls in Manila, and the Philippines in general, have been growing quite strongly,\u201d <\/em>said Enrique Razon, chairman of casino-resort operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp. Moreover and \u201cAside from Manila, we\u2019re looking for one cruise-ship facility in the north and possibly two in the south.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

International Container Terminal Services, Inc., also owned by Razon, is looking to invest \u20ac 153 million <\/strong>to upgrade a port in the central Philippine province of Iloilo, which the company says may eventually include a terminal for cruise-ship passengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Philippines\u2019 cruise strategy focuses on Manila, Boracay and Puerto Princesa, as well as potential new destinations in the northern part of Luzon, the country\u2019s main island. In addition, Salomague Port in Ilocos Sur province, scheduled to open this month, will receive Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd\u2019s biggest ship in Asia in December. Lastly, in April 2021, Manila\u2019s first cruise-dedicated port is scheduled to open at the Solaire Cruise Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tourism\nhas been growing steadily in the Philippines in recent years, reaching 7.2\nmillion visitors last year. The government\u2019s target is about 8.2 million\nvisitors for 2019 and 12 million by the end of 2022, but that still pales next\nto Thailand, which expects more than 40 million tourists this year.\n\nEmployment in tourism\nand related industries has been rising faster than overall job growth. Tourism\naccounted for 13.4% of Philippine jobs in 2018, projected to rise to 14.4% by\n2022, according to the Department of Tourism.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Philippines wants to attract more cruise ships to its ports and be part of Asia\u2019s growing cruise-tourism industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Philippines is strategically investing in port infrastructure to significantly expand its cruise tourism sector, aiming to boost economic growth and increase visitor arrivals. This initiative includes substantial capital expenditure from entities like International Container Terminal Services, Inc., owned by Bloomberry Resorts Corp.'s chairman, Enrique Razon, with new cruise terminals planned across key destinations. The government is revising tourism targets upwards, recognizing cruise tourism's potential to drive economic impact and job creation.","focusai_entities":"Benito Bengzon, Enrique Razon, Bloomberry Resorts Corp., International Container Terminal Services, Inc., Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Department of Tourism","focusai_location":"Philippines, Manila, Boracay, Puerto Princesa, Luzon, Ilocos Sur, Iloilo, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Thailand","focusai_target_profile":"investor_analyst (0.9), ceo_executive (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.8), supplier_vendor (0.75), operator_casino (0.7)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Bloomberry ROI?","query":"What is the projected return on investment for Bloomberry Resorts Corp.'s port infrastructure investments, and how does this integrate with their broader capital allocation strategy for integrated resorts?"},{"label":"Gaming Sector Impact?","query":"How will the anticipated increase in cruise tourism arrivals, particularly from North Asian markets, specifically impact the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and non-gaming revenue streams for integrated resort operators in the Philippines?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,157,16333],"tags":[415,128],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-business-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-cruise","tag-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21245,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/21245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}