The Philippines and South Korea have agreed a 50-percent increase in weekly flight seat capacity entitlement between the Philippine capital Manila and Incheon International Airport, the main air hub serving the South Korean capital Seoul.

Such capacity entitlement is rising to 30,000 seats per week, from 20,000. The decision came in a bilateral memorandum of understanding on July 4, after two days of talks, reported on Monday the Philippine News Agency, citing information from the Philippines’ Department of Transportation.

The seat increase is meant to address rising interest among Filipinos and South Koreans for tourism between the places since easing of travel restrictions after the Covid-19 pandemic, said the news agency, citing the transportation department.

“The increase in capacity will be felt by the market once airlines take advantage of the opportunity to carry more passenger traffic between the capital cities of the two countries,” said the Philippine transportation department.

There are no capacity limits on flights from outside Manila to South Korea, nor on flights from Manila to other airports in South Korea aside from Incheon, noted the department.

Manila is home to a collection of casino resorts open to domestic as well as foreign players, with the largest venues being private sector resorts at Entertainment City.

The country’s casino industry has been recording a strong recovery in gross gaming revenue (GGR) since the Philippines eased pandemic-related restrictions in the first half of 2022, aided by domestic demand as well as inbound tourism. According to comments by gaming industry representatives, South Korea is currently the top source market for Philippine casinos in terms of foreign players.

Incheon and Seoul have casino resorts, but the gaming facilities are only open to foreigners.

According to the Philippines Department of Tourism, South Korea was the largest single source of foreign visitors to the Philippines in the January to June period, with 792,482 arrivals. That was 28.2 percent of the Philippines’ total of nearly 2.81 million foreign tourists. The calculation excludes 220,026 arrivals by overseas Filipinos.

Visitors from the United States were in second spot in the first half this year, with 493,900 arrivals, or 17.6 percent of the total. China was in third place, with 191,222 arrivals, 6.8 percent of all foreigners.