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Visa to Promote Mindanao Travel in Korea, Japan

By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY — Market leader Visa International seeks to spur consumer spending through Visa cards this year by tapping its biggest card markets, Korea and Japan, to promote travel and tourism in Mindanao, the company said Wednesday.

Improving spending in the Korean market on travel to Mindanao is ?good for Mindanao and good for Visa,? said Visa country manager for the Philippines James Dixon said in a talk with reporters here.

In 2005 alone, spending by Visa cardholders visiting the Philippines reached 50 billion pesos (US$914.5 million), a whopping 46 per cent growth over the previous year, Dixon said.

?Mindanao is important for us not only as a local market but as a tourist destination,? he said. ?Visa International seeks to promote to Korean cardholders to come to the Philippines.?

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Ibon to GMA: Damaging Economic Policies Also Cause ?Political Noise?

MANILA — Palace spokesman Ignacio Bunye on Wednesday called for the people to move on so that the government could push economic reforms, reiterating Malaca?ang?s claims that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had decisively won 2004 national elections. But it is precisely her economic ?reforms,? such as the reformed value-added tax (RVAT) law, that continue to contribute to political unrest, and not only allegations of corruption and election fraud, according to independent think-tank Ibon Foundation.

?Life has inarguably become more difficult for the people under Arroyo,? says Ibon research head Sonny Africa. Ibon?s estimated cost of living (national average) has grown almost 30% during the more than five years of the Arroyo administration. The real value of the peso has fallen by 23% during the same period.

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