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MEDIA RELEASE

June 2011

DOT cheers new Cebu Pacific Manila-Busan service

The Department of Tourism (DOT) welcomed yesterday budget airline Cebu

Pacifics inaugural Manila-Busan flight as a sign of continued confidence from Korea,

the Philippines largest tourism market.

Korea has become an extremely important market for us. Cebu Pacific has

likewise been on its toes in delivering on this market, now with 29 weekly flights to

Korea including this new service to Busan, said Secretary Alberto A. Lim at the flight

launch from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3.

Cebu Pacific adds the four-times-weekly Manila-Busan flights the airlines 24th

international route and 75th overall to a Cebu-Busan service, also four times weekly. It

also flies twice daily from Manila and daily from Cebu to Incheon, the primary airport

servicing the South Korean capital of Seoul. Busan is the second largest city in Korea.

We now have the two largest cities in Korea connected with the two largest

cities in the Philippines, and we feel that weve actually helped in attracting more

Korean tourists because were all about low fares, said Alex Reyes, Vice President for

Commercial Planning at Cebu Pacific.

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Lim expressed hope that low-cost airfare would be a continuing trend, with more

participants in the market.

Also present at the launch were His Excellency Lee Hye Min, Ambassador of

South Korea to the Philippines, Maj. Gen. Antonio Bautista, Senior Assistant General

Manager of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) and Civil Aviation Authority

of the Philippines (CAAP) Deputy Director General for Operations Napoleon Garcia.

Korea is the Philippines largest single foreign tourist market. Last years 740,622

Korean visitor arrivals comprised 21.04% of all arrivals and represented a 48.74%

increase from 2009. The surge has thus far continued this year with 286,018 Korean

tourists arriving from January to April, up 28.35% from the same period last year.

The inaugural Busan-Manila return flight that arrived Wednesday brought

members of the Korean press, who were toured by the DOT around Manila and Puerto

Princesa, Palawan in an effort to further promote the Philippines to Korean tourists.

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CONTACT: EVELYN A. MACAYAYONGOffice of Marketing Communications525-18-05

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1st photo:

(From left to right) CEB cabin crew with CEB VP for Commercial Planning Alex Reyes, CAAP DeputyDirector General for Operations Napoleon Garcia, DOT Secretary Alberto Lim, Ambassador Lee Hye Minof the Republic of South Korea , MIAA Senior Assistant General Manager Antonio Bautista and CEB VPfor Airport Services Antonio Jose Rodriguez.2nd photo:

(From left to right) CEB cabin crew with CAAP Deputy Director General for Operations Napoleon Garcia,

Ambassador Lee Hye Min of the Republic of South Korea, DOT Secretary Alberto Lim, CEB VP forAirport Services Antonio Jose Rodriguez, CEB VP for Commercial Planning Alex Reyes and CEB VP forPeople and Administration Michael Shau.

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