Philippines Fiesta to wow travellers

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The Philippines department of tourism has unveiled plans for a shopping festival - the WOW Philippines Shopping Fiesta 2003 - to run between October and November.

The Philippines department of tourism has unveiled plans for a shopping festival - the WOW Philippines Shopping Fiesta 2003 - to run between October and November. The event, held in association with the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corporation, aims to promote the country as a shopping haven and encourage spend among both international and domestic tourists.

Tourism secretary Richard Gordon said the event would be centered on Makati City for the first month before moving to Manila in November. The campaign is supported by Visa, and cardholders will enjoy special privileges, free gifts and instant prize draws for the duration of the event.

Gordon said the WOW Fiesta aims to build on the 7.6% increase in visitor arrivals in the 2002, when 1.9m foreign nationals and overseas Filipinos spent a total of $1.74bn in the country.

"The average daily shopping expenditure of travellers last year was pegged at $14.81,? he said, ?which means that tourists travelling in the Philippines spend $257m on shopping alone.?