BANGKOK: The Philippines praised Malaysia as a model for successful tourism governance, and for its efforts in reviving the tourism sector in the post pandemic period.

The Philippines Department of Tourism secretary, Christina Garcia Frasco said this to her Malaysian counterpart Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 11th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Tourism Ministerial Meeting and related meetings in Bangkok, Friday.

"Your country has been a model for successful tourism governance," said Frasco adding that her side is interested to continue the cordial tourism exchanges between the two countries.

Since reopening its doors to international travelers in February this year, she said more than 17,000 Malaysians had visited the Philippines as of August 14.

The Malaysian market was among the Top 16 international markets of the Philippines in the past five years. Among the ASEAN countries, Malaysians came second in the visitor numbers to the Philippines in 2019.

Frasco said the Philippines also keen to renew a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that aim to foster cooperation between the two countries in the areas of Travel Facilitation; Research and Development; Education and Training; Tourism Investments; and Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE).

"We have every intention to continue this partnership between the Philippines and Malaysia.

"Both our countries have a shared heritage, values, value for family community, and culture. We view these as one of the core strengths of Malaysia. We anticipate that as we continue our partnership, the exchange of best practices on culture and heritage will be some of the key points of our agreement," she said. The MoU was first inked in 2001.

Meanwhile, Nancy said the Philippines also keen to learn 'number of things' from Malaysia including Halal industry as well emulate the Malaysia My Second Home programme.

"The Philippines wanted to learn Malaysia's success in the Halal programme as there is a large part of Muslim population in the Mindanao Region. The Philippines also keen to cater Muslim tourists to the country.

"As a close neighbour, we have no problem in sharing," Nancy told Bernama.

-- BERNAMA