TOURISM, ENGLISH EDUCATION

    Besides merchandise goods trade, the Chinese Ambassador said he also expects an increase of Chinese tourists to the Philippines as the Chinese-ASEAN FTA frees up service trade and investment.

    Despite its pristine beaches and geological vicinity to China, the Philippines attracted only 160,000 Chinese visitors last year, out of 50 million out-bound Chinese tourists.

    In a previous interview, Liu said security volatility, higher costs and insufficient promotion are holding back Chinese tourists. Bolts of violence in the restive Mindanao region are detrimental to tourism of the country as a whole, the envoy said.

    Chinese holiday makers opted for South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand if they planned to travel in the region, Liu said, and for example more than four times of Chinese tourists went to South Korea than to the Philippines in 2008.

    On the other hand, Pablo said the Philippines is also marketing itself as an attractive English language and nursing study destination to Chinese students thanks to the country's lower-cost but quality education for non-English speaking Asians.

    Chinese Embassy statistics show that there are roughly 3,000 Chinese studying in the Philippines, only a tip of averagely 20,000 South Korean students in the country every year from 2004 to 2008.

    Bai Jinlong, a 22-year-old Chinese studying international auditing in the Far East University, said most of his fellow Chinese students graduated with influent English and a brighter future.

    "Many of them went to the U.S. for further study or for work. Things would not be as easy if they had not studied here," Bai said.    

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