The Philippine flag carrier, Philippine Airlines (PAL), will fly to Qatar from October, ambassador Crescente Relacion announced yesterday while launching “It’s More Fun in the Philippines,” a social media tourism campaign spearheaded by a group of Filipinos in Qatar.
PAL is expected to operate six times a week Manila-Doha-Manila flights, the envoy explained. Relacion said that PAL and Qatar Airways have a code-sharing in the Doha-Manila-Doha flights which entitles the former with six flights per week.
Qatar Airways currently has 14 Doha-Manila-Doha flights per week, but according to Relacion, it was requesting the Philippine government to increase it to a total of 28 flights per week.
Another top airline in the Philippines, Cebu Pacific, has earlier announced that it will fly to Dubai in October as its first long-haul flight.
There are more than 3mn Filipinos working in the Middle East and some 700,000 of them are in Dubai while 250,000 are in Qatar.
Citing the need for more Manila-Doha flights, the ambassador said PAL’s plans will help boost the country’s tourism programmes.
“Tourism generates thousands of jobs for Filipinos and we really have to support our government,” said Relacion, who also urged overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Qatar to support the Philippine government’s efforts in promoting the country as a tourism destination.
During the meeting with some Filipino organisations at the new embassy office, culture attaché Richard Billedo and Foundation for Family and Life (FFL) migrant workers launched “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” social media campaign.
The campaign aims to promote the different places and tourism destinations in the Philippines to OFWs. He stressed that aside from Boracay and Palawan, places like Zambales, Pampanga, Ilocos, Davao, General Santos City, Bohol and Dumaguete City should be visited by OFWs.
Relacion also announced that the Edsa revolution on February 25 will be celebrated in Qatar with a number of activities.
A documentary film about the life of Ninoy Aquino, father of Philippine President Noynoy Aquino, will be shown in different Philippine schools during that day.
