PH voted among top three dive destinations at Tokyo’s international diving event
The Philippines made waves in the Marine Diving Fair 2012, one of the largest diving and beach resort exhibitions in Asia attracting over 50,000 visitors annually. This year, the event showcased 200 exhibitors from 50 different countries.
Inspired by the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” campaign logo, the colorful Philippine booth was a crowd drawer. With five aquariums placed strategically inside the booth and the paintings of marine life on the wall, fair visitors were drawn to the booth to discover what makes diving “more fun” in the Philippines.
DOT’s participation was aimed at maintaining the high profile of the Philippines as a premier and competitive dive destination among Japanese overseas divers. Since our participation in year 2000, the Philippines has been continuously selected as one of the top five dive destinations.
This year, the Philippines is the only ASEAN country that ranked among the top three dive destinations together with Maldives and Palau. Since 2006, the country has been consecutively included in the top five “Best Overseas Destinations”, and consistently awarded as one of the top 10 “Dream Destinations”. Selection for these awards is done through voting by subscribers of Marine Diving Magazine, one of the most prestigious dive publications in Japan.
Blue Coral bagged the top award as the favorite dive operator for 2012, winning the same award for five consecutive years. Another dive operator, the Good Dive Shop also made it to the top 10 for the same category.
DOT Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez, Jr. was pleased to note that once again, the country affirmed its status as a must-see dive destination by raking in top placements in all four major award categories. “Our partnership with the private sector dive tour operators has paid off nicely. We encourage more suppliers to keep raising the bar for service excellence to grow this market segment,” the tourism chief said.
The participation of the DOT is also in consonance with its overall marketing strategy to attract Japanese divers, which along with the independent ladies and the active seniors serve as priority segments of the department. Japan remains to be among the top three sources of foreign tourist arrivals visiting the country in 2011.
Joining the Philippine booth were representatives of Philippine Airlines, Club Paradise, El Rio Y Mar, Alegre Beach Resort, Talisay Beach Resort, Emerald Green Diving Center, Anemone Resort, Blue Coral Diving Shop, Donsol Ecotour Inc. El Nido Resorts, Kasai Village Resort, Pacific Cebu Resorts International, Villa Tropara Dive Resort and Philippine Banca Dive Safari.
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