PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — Seasonal chartered flights from three major cities in China will start carrying an estimated 600 nationals here in February and in March, a city tourism official said Friday morning.
The latest development is part of Puerto Princesa’s campaign this year to step up foreign tourist excursion that is an important factor in the industry’s contribution to the city economy, City Tourism Department (CTD) promotions and marketing officer Michie Meneses said.
“This is one of the exciting developments our city tourism is rolling out this year — opening our doors to our Chinese friends who want to explore the beauty of our natural sights,” she said.
The maiden chartered flight via the flagship carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) will arrive from the northern coastal metropolis of Tianjin on February 8 with 199 Chinese nationals.
“PAL already confirmed the arrival to us just recently, and we’re already preparing our frontliners for this, including the destinations they want to visit,” Meneses said.
The sites offered in tour packages for are the Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR) at Sitio Sabang, Barangay Cabayugan; Honda Bay Islands in Barangay Sta. Lourdes, and the City Tour, which consists of visits to Crocodile Farm, Plaza Cuartel, and Mitra’s Ranch among others.
“Part of preparing these sites is putting up signage with Chinese translation,” she added.
Aside from PAL, chartered flights will also be flown to the city by the China Airlines, the nation’s flag carrier, headquartered at Taoyuan International Airport.
“The first batch of Chinese guests will reportedly be fetched by China Airlines that will also fly the second batch. That’s how it will go — the first batch in via PAL to be fetched by the China flag carrier that would also bring in the second batch. But we have to confirm this from CAAP (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines),” she said, adding each batch will stay for a week.
The chartered flight chain will continue until February 22 and will resume transporting Chinese tourists again on March 25 from the cities of Beijing, and Shenzhen in Guangdong Province.
“We have to clarify if a chartered flight will come also from Beijing since that’s also one of the information related to us,” she said.
Meneses added part of their arrangements for the Chinese guests is sprucing up Valencia Street and the Old Public Market area that they are proposing to be the city’s “China Town.”
“We will dress up Valencia Street with red, gold, and pink decorations for the February 16 Chinese New Year celebration. We will put giant angpao (red envelopes) on Acacia trees to have the festive look to welcome them,” she said.
With a share of 20,881 tourists, Chinese nationals ranked third in the top 20 foreign nationalities who visited the city last year, CTD data showed. ( ,with reports from Keith Anthony Fabro/PNA)
