CLARK FREEPORT – A group of Turkish travel agents visited the Metro Clark area here as well as the Subic Bay Freeport Zone on Monday for a familiarization tour hosted by Philippine travel operators and sponsored by Qatar Airways.
The Philippine tour operators led by Joebert Opulencia, president of Orientours Co. Ltd. , Margaret N. Ongshu, president of Travel Experts, Inc. and Gilda Padua president of Ties That Travel hosted the Turkish delegates who came via the Clark International Airport (CIA) on Monday.
Burcu Inal, sales executive of Qatar Airways, said the airline company sponsored the familiarization tour in order to look for an alternative Asian destination for the Turkish travel agents.
“We are happy to organize this fam trip because Qatar Airways started to fly to Clark,” Inal said. “Clark is also a very interesting place for MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) since they are also targeting MICE agents to go here,” she added.
Inal said they invited nine travel agents who are both very professional and have good business in MICE. “They know about Turkish companies that have incentive groups during the year,” she said.
Inal explained that in Turkey most of the companies have two or three trip incentives per year and most of them prefer Asia like Bangkok, Phuket, Pataya which are very common destinations.
But now, Inal said, “we would like to present Manila and Clark as an alternative.”
“That is the purpose of our trip. So for four days we will stay in the Philippines – two days in Clark and two days in Manila,” she added.
Inal said it was a good decision to start the tour from Clark since it is easier to access the country via the CIA. Mert Bulat, directing partner for ICF Tour based in Istanbul, said “when I look at the Philippines it is still an undiscovered nation for Turkish market but a good one.”
“For me it’s just a question of time. I share the opinion that it will be a good alternative for the Thailand program which we are used to in Turkey for incentive groups,” he said.
However, Bulat said there is a price difference between Thailand and Philippines with the latter costing a little bit more but if you can promote Philippines some more that won’t matter.
“It’s good to know that you have direct flights with Qatar airlines to many destinations,” he added.
Bulat said they are also looking into resorts and places that can attract incentive groups as well as honeymooners.
He said “every agency will create a program and they will work on these destinations.”
Opulencia said, “If we are able to manage security the rest will follow because that’s the key to every one’s mind – to travel safe.”
“We look forward to Clark booming and becoming a model for tourism for the rest of the country,” he added.
“There are only two things which are here in the Philippines which you can hardly find in other countries. We might be laid back in some certain things but we still have the smile and the charm of the Filipinos and our comprehension of the English language which makes the Philippines a big difference,” Opulencia said.
“The Turkish travel agents are looking for something different – the things that a normal fam tour doesn’t have or experience like most of them ate for the first time with their hands during the boodle fight in Subic and then instead of doing the tours immediately we took them to the beach first,” he said.
Opulencia said the Turks were very much impressed with very simple tree last night filled with thousands of bats. “They don’t see that in Turkey,” he pointed out.
“If we look at all the places in the Philippines, we will not accomplish it all. But right now in the Turkish portfolio it’s basically Clark, Manila, Cebu, Boracay and Palawan,” he said.
