Ctrip, China’s leading online travel agency, noted that the visitor numbers from the Chinese mainland to the Philippines have soared 200 per cent in the last five months.

“Currently, we see an increasing number of Chinese tourists heading to the Philippines,” Ctrip told China Daily Asia Weekly.

Following the slump in tourism from 2012 to 2014, visitors from China increased 62.44 per cent from 33,250 arrivals in April 2015 to 54,011 in April this year.

Visitors from China also secured the third spot with a count of 238,523 and a share of 11.5 per cent in the first four months of 2016, according to a report by the Philippines’ Department of Tourism.

According to research in April from the Hong Kong-based investment house CLSA titled, Great Wall of Chinese, arrivals to the Philippines from the Chinese mainland may outnumber tourists from traditional markets such as Japan and the United States in the next few years.

The catch-up in visitor numbers is good news for the Philippine economy, as tourism contributed 10.6 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2015, according to data from the World Travel and Tourism Council.

But the specter of a Beijing-Manila territorial dispute lingers and geopolitics still plays a big role in the number of Chinese tourists to the Philippines.

In recent years, the two countries’ troubled geopolitical legacy has continued to impact the number of tourist arrivals from China to the Philippines. In 2014, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a travel advisory to Chinese nationals, citing violence against Chinese in the Philippines.

The travel industry now hopes that the new Duterte administration will improve relations between China and the Philippines and boost tourism.

“We hope the new Philippines president will launch more policies (that will benefit the) travel industry,” Ctrip said. “We are hoping for visa-free access for Chinese tourists.”

The online travel agency said the Philippines remains a favorite holiday destination for lovers of nature, adventure sports and beaches.

The CLSA report also noted that the number of Chinese visitors to the Philippines has seen the biggest year-over-year growth, leading other Asia-Pacific countries with a 130-per cent gain.

Simon Shen Xu-hui, international relations scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: “It is too early to tell, but because of (Duterte’s) more pragmatic stand regarding China, it’s likely that bilateral relations could improve in the future, especially at the civilian and business level. So could tourism.”

According to CLSA, although it would be “naive” to assume a similar growth trajectory as the tourist numbers in Thailand for the Philippines, “the potential to grow here is higher than most other countries”.

More than 8 million Chinese visited Thailand in 2015, and a total of more than 120 million Chinese traveled abroad last year, up 12 per cent year-on-year, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Though travelers from the Chinese mainland have begun to return to the Philippines, tour groups from Hong Kong are still staying away, six years after a deadly bus hijacking incident on Aug 23, 2010 killed eight tourists from the Chinese special administrative region.

The killings by the hijacker, a former Philippine police officer who was demanding his reinstatement, followed a botched rescue attempt, which was seen on a live telecast.

Bilateral relations between Hong Kong and Manila worsened when then Philippine president Benigno Aquino refused to offer an apology to the bereaved families of those killed in the incident. Consequently, Hong Kong put a black travel alert on the Philippines which was lifted only in April 2014 following a formal apology from the Philippine government.

Travel agencies from Hong Kong that used to specialize in packages to the Philippines said that although some individual tourists are venturing to the Philippines, many are still reluctant to join tour groups to the country.

Only 122,180 Hong Kong tourists visited the Philippines in 2015, according to the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) in Manila.

Philippine tourism officials are now targeting free independent tourists who now account for most of the travelers from Hong Kong.

Sara Mok, a financial officer at a Hong Kong-based company, is one such traveler. An exchange student in the Philippines for five months in 2009, Mok still has a fondness for the country and said she had no qualms about visiting it even after the hostage incident.

“It doesn’t make much difference to me. I love the place, the beaches, (and) water sports. And the people are nice,” said 28-year-old Mok.

Joseph Tung, executive director of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, said the Philippines’ emergence as an attractive destination for individual travelers has revived the tourism potential between Hong Kong and the Philippines, with the TPB and travel agents stepping up promotional efforts.

The Philippines now also promotes its entertainment and high-end luxury markets along with popular scenic spots like Boracay, El Nido, Banaue and Cebu. The country declared 2015 as Visit the Philippines year and attracted over 5.3 million foreign visitors. Buoyed by the success of the campaign, it is now pushing 2016 as Visit the Philippines Again year.

Besides sightseeing, the Philippines’ casino industry has also attracted many Chinese visitors and high rollers. According to the CLSA report, Chinese tourists contributed half of the gross gaming revenue of the country’s VIP gambling segment.

The country is now developing clusters of casino resorts which are only a short distance from the international airport in Manila and a new expressway, later this year.

However, concerns about personal safety still remain a major issue. These concerns — which continue to be expressed on social media sites by potential travelers from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong — deter many tourists.

“Since the (bus hijack) incident, we knew we couldn’t (expect Hong Kong) tour groups,” said David Leung, a Hong Kong marketing representative of the Philippines’ TPB. “In fact no group tourists have arrived in the Philippines from Hong Kong.”

Panda Travel Service in Manila, which specializes in Chinese tourists, said Hong Kong tourist numbers to the Philippines are yet to touch the levels before the hijack fiasco. The tour operator said: “Despite the increase in number of mainland tourists, the same can’t be said for Hong Kong travelers.”

Shen, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: “The Philippine government should improve its domestic security measures and services. It must convince Hong Kong people that they are welcome and safe in Philippines.”

“At the end of the day, Hong Kong people are quite well known for separating sociopolitical sentiments from business and lifestyle behaviors.”

The 11-member MIC is chaired by Kyaw Win, planning and finance minister.

The new government is geared to draw more foreign direct investment, in a bid to create jobs and improve the country’s infrastructure.

He also promises to pass the savings to travellers in the form of lower fares.

Over the next 12 months, MAS will have a new website, mobile app, trade reservations system and airport equipment.

Bellew was appointed group managing director and CEO of MAS effective July 1, taking over from Christoph Mueller, who leaves the airline on Sept 1. Mueller is on leave from yesterday.

It was a busy first day at work for Bellew.

He started early and had three town hall sessions with staff to assure them that the job to fix MAS will be done.

“Airport costs will be an imme­diate focus and we are planning to operate some leisure flights from KLIA2 in 2017 where costs are lower by RM33 per passenger or RM5,412 per flight than the main KLIA terminal.

“With one flight daily, this will result in savings of RM1.975mil a year.

“We will pass these savings to customers with lower fares.

“Each and every cost will be minutely checked daily without affecting any quality,” Bellew said in his first statement issued to the media yesterday.

He said the digital experience when booking with MAS in the future would be different with significant investment being made this and next year.

“From choice of seats to the quality of nasi lemak to the time of travel, we need to ensure the needs of each guest with different indivi­dual preferences is met,” Bellew said.

MAS has been losing money for some years now and suffered two major air disasters in 2014, which threw it into a tailspin.

After a global search, Mueller was hired to turn the airline around, but he decided to quit two years ahead of the end of his contract.

Mueller is said to be joining the world’s largest airline, Emirates, as its chief technology officer.

Bellew has made it clear that MAS would remain focused on the turnaround, and the focus will be to fly smarter, reduce cost, fix all that needs to be done and ensure succession planing.

“We will work to ensure we have a large group of Malaysians trained in the next three years who are capable of leading the airline through 2030,” Bellew said.

He added that the turnaround initiatives were working and for the first quarter (January to March 2016), the performance indicators were on track with yield up by 23.4% and cost down by 32.9%.

The RM14mil profit for the first quarter was the first for the airline in many years. In the past, pilfe­rages and redundancies were a common feature at MAS.

Bellew said that “saving money does not mean compromising on safety or on our products and services.

“It simply means we need to increase productivity and efficiency, invest in modern technology, enter into mutually beneficial partnerships besides identifying and mitigating risks early.”

But, he added, “we will stop doing things that lose money.”

“A lot has been done, the profit seen in the last quarter shows that the financial gap between revenue and cost has significantly closed, which tells us that we are on the right trajectory.

“We need to move quicker and more aggressively to keep up the momentum,” he said.

But on Friday (July 1), the companies said Ipop had run its course and was no longer needed. They supported the Indonesian government’s efforts to “transform the palm oil sector” and to strengthen the country’s own certification standards called the Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil, or Ispo.

“Ipop signatories have decided that recent groundbreaking policy developments in Indonesia have fulfilled the purpose of Ipop to help accelerate and promote this transformation toward sustainability and therefore its presence can be dissolved,” the grouping said in a statement on Friday. They pointed to government actions that included the creation of a peatland restoration agency.

The Ipop companies are Wilmar International, Golden Agri Resources (GAR), Cargill, Asian Agri, Musim Mas and Astra Agro Lestari.

The Ispo, which is mandatory, bans land-clearing in primary forests and peatlands. The Ipop, which is voluntary, goes further by banning land-clearing in secondary forests and bushland that has high carbon content.

Green groups have condemned the move, saying the firms were only caving in to government’s pressure.

The Agriculture Ministry earlier this year complained that the Ipop was hurting smallholder producers who could not afford to adopt sustainable forestry practices under the pledge. The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) had alleged that as a result, a cartel-like monopoly is created by the signatories.

Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Annisa Rahmawati said in a statement on Friday that “the government officials have bullied and threatened Ipop members”.

“The Ministry of Agriculture needs to get its priorities right. Last year’s forest fires crippled Indonesia’s economy and poisoned people across the region,” she said.

The haze crisis blamed on forest fires in Indonesia last year were the worst in the nation’s history by several measures, causing widespread illness and billions of dollars in losses to the economy.

Annisa urged government officials to urgently work towards delivering President Joko Widodo’s plans to stop forest fires by halting the palm oil industry’s expansion into forests and peatlands.

The Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday that the Ispo is “a single standard for sustainable palm in Indonesia” and will adopt international best practices which are in line with the country’s laws.

Cargill said in a statement: “With the affirmative action by Indonesia towards a sustainable palm oil sector, Cargill supports the dissolution of Ipop.”

In a statement, Wilmar International said it welcomed the Indonesian government’s initiative to lead the country’s palm oil industry towards more environment friendly development.

“In the past year, the Government of Indonesia (GOI) has shown much leadership in strengthening its sustainability policies. These include the moratorium on peatland development and the creation of the National Peat Restoration Agency, the moratorium on new permits for oil palm plantations, as well as progress on the legal protection of High Conservation Value (HCV) areas. All these actions are clear indications of the GOI’s resolve to progress towards a sustainable palm oil sector.”

Wilmar said given these developments, “IPOP as an entity is no longer required”. But it stressed it would continue its zero-deforestation, no peat, no fires and no exploitation policies as before.

Glenn Hurowitz, senior fellow at Washington-based Centre for International Policies, said the need for robust industry and government action to protect Indonesia’s forests and people is “as urgent as ever”.

“If the palm oil, paper, and rubber industries want to avoid a repeat of the haze disaster, they will need to team up to create comprehensive, transparent implementation mechanisms,” he said.

The government had in the past repeatedly tried to move forward and set regulations to allow foreigners to own apartments in South-east Asia’s biggest economy.

But they were never able to get these implemented because the basic stipulation under Indonesia’s 1960 Agrarian Law is that foreigners just cannot own homes in the country, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan said.

“It is similar to that in Singapore,” he added.

Indonesia’s Constitution gives the President the right to issue a rule in lieu of law (perppu) when he determines that an emergency in the country requires it.

A perppu is immediately effective after the President signs it, and Parliament can either let it remain effective or end it within a year after the perppu is issued.

Luhut said the perppu that covers a new rule allowing foreign investors to buy apartments is one of between four and five perppu that Indonesia plans to issue by August, to resolve other obstacles hindering the government reform programme.

“This is a revolutionary step to address such problems,” he said.

A so-called debottlenecking working committee has been set up to identify problematic and protracted clauses in all laws.

“We will comb all legislations that overlap with each other,” Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, who heads the working committee, told The Straits Times.

The perppu will supersede only the problematic clauses in each law and serve to bypass them, Luhut said.

He added that one perppu could address problems in five to more than 10 existing laws, and about 80 per cent to 90 per cent of the existing laws can be harmonised.

Issuing perppu is a normal practice that some foreign governments, such as the United States, also use, Luhut said, adding that the term used in the US is “presidential Act”.

In May, President Joko Widodo signed a perppu that allows courts to increase penalties for sex crimes, which include for the first time chemical castration and death sentence, after the media highlighted a growing number of attacks against children.

Previously, the maximum sentence for a child sex offence was 15 years’ jail. Indonesians have mostly welcomed the move.

Amending existing laws through the normal process, by proposing Bills to Indonesian Parliament, can drag on for several years, and in some cases, proposed Bills were thrown out.

Numerous government reform programmes in Indonesia in the past decades have hit a snag due to conflicting laws that need amendment.

The programme is designed to be community based and has a concession period of 15 years. It is set to become operational later this year when the district officially opens its tourism year.

“Our district has a lot of interesting tourist activities and its attractions are almost the same as in Vangvieng. But Meuangfeuang district has more unexplored sites and the environment is still perfect,” local investor Vanna Sengphachan told Vientiane Times recently.

Vanna, who is in charge of a tourism service group in the district, said he will put his own capital into the development of facilities, while local villagers will also benefit from the initiative.

“I plan to put the money into building several rest points along the Nam Lik River, to be used by tourists who participate in tubing, long-tailed boat riding and rafting activities,” he said. He envisages that these activities will be around 13km in length from the starting point at Naxaeng village to the end point at Meuangfeuang village.

The district has a dramatic mountain range and its heart is located amid green hills. Unlike more developed tourist hotspots, it is well-known for its unspoiled waterfalls, caves and temples.

Pha thor nor kham is known locally for the sacred golden spot that could be seen high up on the mountainside. It was considered lucky to see it, but now it is no longer visible. The area is a popular destination with both domestic and foreign visitors.

Vanna said local residents will benefit from the proposed project because they can contribute boats, tubes, rafts and transport services.

“The Nam Lik River has a special character. It is much deeper than the Xong River in Vangvieng district and is crystal clear in the dry season. It will be the outstanding highlight of our tourism service programme,” Vanna said.

Meuangfeuang district is about 130km from Vientiane and visitors can reach it by car because it is only about 30km from Road No. 13 North.

There are seven or eight guesthouses in the town centre and other facilities are also available, including restaurants and markets.