The ban on all Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) should open doors for talks to ease visa restrictions for the Chinese tourists, a tourism and hospitality expert said.
On the sidelines of the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association (HSMA) general membership meeting in Manila, Alfred Lay, Leechiu Hotels, Tourism, and Leisure Director, said China remains an important market that the Philippines must strive to recapture in the long run.
“It’s not just the visa but the visa is one of several impediments for the Chinese tourists to come here. They have also stricter currency outgoing capital flows and that’s not only related to the Philippines but also to our neighboring countries,” he said in a report.
“But the more we can remove the barriers, the ease of travel to the Philippines will improve and that’s the overall aim,” he added.
Lay believes the imposition of stricter visa rules on Chinese nationals were made mostly due to concerns that they are using tourist visa “as a way of entering the Philippines to then join the POGO market”.
“Once the closure of all the POGOs has happened, the government can consider easing visa restrictions for Chinese arrivals, which will put us on par with our Southeast Asian neighbors and allow us to attract more Chinese visitors,” he said.
DOT to recalibrate tourism efforts
The Department of Tourism (DOT) earlier disclosed that it will “recalibrate” efforts to boost arrivals from other source markets, including South Korea, the United States and Japan amid the slow return of Chinese tourists.
Lay agreed that recalibration is a good move and suggests the Philippines to look at source markets it can grow quickly such as the Middle East, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and India.
While these would not fully compensate for the Chinese tourists in the short term, Lay said a “diversified mix” of markets is still a huge advantage for the Philippines.
The Middle East is an interesting market for PH tourism
“An interesting market would be the Middle East because we already have existing flights. All the major Middle Eastern carriers fly into Clark, Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Cebu, and even Davao,” he said.
“They’re familiar with our people— so the connection is there. If we can promote to those markets, they can find reasons and interests to come to the Philippines,” he added.
The DOT targets to reach 7.7 million in arrivals by the end of 2024. Since the start of the year, the Philippines has so far recorded at least 3.55 million in international visitors.
Ban on POGOs in the Philippines
In his third State of the Nation Address on July 22, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. banned POGOs saying that POGOs have already “ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming, such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, even murder.”
“The grave abuse and disrespect of our system must stop. It is now imperative to stop this chaos that is wreaking havoc to our society and desecrating our country. Effective today, all POGOs are banned,” Marcos exclaimed prompting the crowd at the Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City to break into cheers.
The President also ordered the PAGCOR to cease operations of POGOs by the end of the year, as well as the Department of Labor and Employment to help workers who will be displaced.
Finance Secretary Ralph Recto and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, key figures of the administration’s economic team, have supported the calls to ban POGOs, which mostly cater to clients from mainland China and employ a large number of Chinese-speaking foreign workers.
Several lawmakers and business groups have also earlier urged the President to impose a total ban on POGOs.
Aside from money laundering activities, crimes attributed to the POGOs have expanded over the past years and now include human trafficking, abduction, homicide, illegal detention, kidnap-for-ransom, theft, robbery-extortion, serious physical injuries, swindling, grave coercion, investment scam, cryptocurrency scam, and love scam.
These irregularities have prompted both chambers of Congress to investigate the illicit activities hounding online gambling firms.
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