Tourist arrivals up 12.36% to 4.8M in first seven months of 2019

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign tourist arrivals increased by 12.36 percent to 4.8 million in the first seven months of 2019, Department of Tourism (DOT) said Friday.

DOT recorded a total of 4,852,107 international tourists arrived in the country from January to July compared to the 4.3 million of the same period last year.

Tourism chief Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the agency owes the hike in arrivals to the support of industry stakeholders, government, host communities, investors and foreign travel trade counterparts.

“We remain inspired knowing that private sectors, other government agencies and civil society continue to support our sustainable tourism programs and the more fun brand campaign. The Build, Build, Build program and other convergence programs, on the other hand, are key to improving our competitiveness and attractiveness,” Puyat said in a statement. 

“We enjoin more support for our sustainable tourism efforts not only in key destinations but in all areas to continually drive inbound traffic and spread the benefits of tourism to the countryside.  After all, tourism is everybody’s business,” she added.

South Korea continues to be the top tourist market with 1,113,274 arrivals followed by China with 1,038,409, DOT said. 

Behind China are United States with 663,116 arrivals, Japan with 382,634 and Taiwan with 192,195 arrivals./je