Clark airport info blitz goes international

MANILA, Philippines - Olongapo, Balanga, Dagupan, Malolos, Laoag, Vigan, Baguio, and then Hong Kong.
It was a blitz the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) at first pursued locally to promote the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) at the Clark Freeport as a more convenient alternative for those in provinces north of Metro Manila as well as for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
The logic of the campaign that finally went international recently in Hong Kong surfaced in the reactions of OFWs, mostly domestic helpers, who converged at the hall of the Bayanihan Kennedy Town Center (Bayanihan Center) at 55 Victoria Road. The hall was filled up to capacity beyond the CIAC team’s expectations, way past the morning Mass that dispersed them after the final blessing.
The hall’s stage background was a huge poster with the words “Para sa Inyo ang Airport na Ito,” summarizing the essence of the Hong Kong event that the organizers referred to as a “roadshow.”
“I should have known about the Clark airport earlier. I could imagine the trouble my family and I could have been spared from had we used the airport instead of traveling all the way through the traffic in Manila every time I go home and every time I fly back here,” said Aileen de la Cruz, 32, who hails from Tarlac City. She is a domestic helper in Hong Kong and a Sunday volunteer at the center.
De la Cruz is one of about 130,000 OFWs in Hong Kong, most of them with families living in the four northern Luzon regions. Most of them are domestic helpers whose “minimum allowable wage” is HK$3,580.
CIAC executives, led by president and chief executive officer Victor Jose Luciano, briefed De la Cruz and other OFWs on what is happening at the DMIA and what is in store for them: the DMIA lies in the heart of Central Luzon, making it the most viable and convenient airport of choice for travelers anywhere north of Metro Manila, offering travel convenience and less dent on finances whenever OFWs, welcoming or well-wishing relatives in tow, fly in or fly out.
Among the bus lines plying routes to the DMIA are Partas, Philtranco and Genesis. Soon, Victory Liner will join their ranks, Luciano said. Taxis, too, are available.
Noting that many of the OFWs before him have not gone home for years, Luciano also cited the completion last year of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway as another convenience factor in considering the DMIA.
But a major factor that should lure OFWs, according to Luciano, is that several ”budget carriers” fly international at Clark: Air Asia of Malaysia, Tiger Airways of Singapore, and local airline Cebu Pacific and, by Sept. 31, Zest Air. Cebu Pacific has connecting flights to other parts of the country such as Cebu and Davao.
“The DMIA is only one-and-a-half to four hours from most major Asian cities and, by land, less than an hour away from Metro Manila and the Subic Bay Freeport,” he said.
Accompanying Luciano in the Hong Kong mission were CIAC chairman Nestor Mangio, CIAC consultant and former tourism secretary Mina Gabor, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) vice president Raul Marcelo, Hotels and Resorts of Pampanga Association president Marc Nepomuceno, and Clark Development Corp. tourism officer Noemi Garcia.
After the meeting with the OFWs who went back to their work after tucking securely into their bags or wallets a handout on the DMIA, the CIAC team dressed up more formally the following day for a meeting with 50 executives of travel agencies and travel media professionals in Hong Kong at the Langham Place in Mong Kok.
“The DMIA international roadshow is initially focused on promoting greater awareness of the DMIA as a practical point of departure and arrival for OFWs deployed in that country, as well as a convenient gateway of travelers from South China to the business and leisure destinations in Central Luzon, specifically the Clark and Subic freeport zones,” Luciano said.
Gabor noted that while the world still has to fully recover from the global financial crisis, “there is reason to think positively, mostly in terms of short-haul tourism.”
“There remains much space for tourism in the Philippines despite the global crisis, because there are many areas such as medical and other such forms of tourism whose potential still has to be maximized,” she said.
Philippine Consul General Claro Cristobal said tourists from Hong Kong have grown, accounting for the fifth largest group of visitors to the Philippines.
“Hong Kong can be persuaded to rediscover the Philippines,” he said, noting the historical ties between the two places.
Luciano expressed confidence that the DMIA, which served only 7,000 passengers four years ago, would process no less than 750,000 passengers this year.
The CIAC’s first international roadshow, the Hong Kong OFWs and tourists are expected to help realize this.