As part of the invigorated thrust to attract bigger tourist arrivals from Japan, the Philippines recently once again concluded a series of successful Philippine Business Mission (PBM) in Sapporo, Nagoya and Tokyo. Japan ranks 4th in terms of tourist arrivals, with a growth rate of 8.15% or a total of 631,801 Japanese visitors in 2018, compared to 581,180 arrivals in 2017.
The PBM continues to be one of the most important annual projects of the Department of Tourism (DOT) through the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Philippines. It provides the ideal business platform for suppliers of Philippine tourism products hotels and resorts, tour operators and airlines in the process of expanding trade relations with their Japanese counterparts while establishing new contacts in the travel trade industry in Japan.
Major components for this years PBM were: a Philippine seminar that provided a comprehensive report on important Philippine travel and tourism developments; Business-to-Business (B2B) meetings wherein DOT Tokyo and DOT Osaka had a total of 400 industry players for one-on-one business discussions with Japanese travel trade and Philippines sellers; and a Philippine Reception that served as a venue for further business networking, in recognition of the strong ties between the Philippines and Japan.