MANILA, April 10 (PNA) — The Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) is expecting that tourist arrivals from the United States and Europe will increase after the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and the European Union (EU) lifted aviation status on the Philippines Thursday.
US FAA has restored the Category 1 rating to Philippines Thursday morning after the country complied with the international aviation safety standards.
The country has regained this category after the US aviation body downgraded the aviation status of the Philippines to Category 2 in 2008.
”The Tourism Congress of the Philippines is delighted and excited with the United States of America (USA) Federal Aviation Administration upgrade of Philippine aviation safety to Category 1 status,” TCP said in as press statement.
”We congratulate the government and everyone else involved for their hard work towards the Philippines regaining its Category 1 status,” the group added.
This evening, EU has announced that it lifted aviation ban to Cebu Pacific Air (CEB) after the compliance of the airline to international standards.
CEB is the second airline here, following Philippine Airlines (PAL) in July 2013, which EU deleted from its blacklist.
”We believe that with this new development, there will be a marked increase in the number of tourist arrivals both from the USA and Europe,” noted TCP.
”All the tourism industry players must take advantage of this development. Infrastructure development must be accelerated. More airports must be made available to international flights. More hotel rooms must be on hand to accommodate the increase in tourist arrivals,” the group cited.
Meanwhile, TCP is the private sector consultative body to assist the government in the development, implementation and coordination of the Philippine tourism policy. (PNA)
LAM/KMC