MANILA, Philippines— The Philippines recorded a total of 2,002,304 international visitor arrivals from January 1 to May 12 according to the tourism department, surpassing last year’s goal of 1.7 million foreign tourists.
“Notwithstanding our challenges and difficulties that our country has faced, a pandemic and the various calamities that come into our shores the good news is that this has done nothing to break the Filipino spirit or to diminish the beauty of the Philippines,” said the Department of Tourism (DOT) secretary Christina Frasco in a Sunday statement.
The tourism authority previously set a goal of 4.8 million international arrivals for 2023 as part of its National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP).
DOT registered the following nations as the top source markets for PH international arrivals:
- South Korea, with 487,502 (24.35%) arrivals
- United States of America, 352,894 (17.62%)
- Australia, 102,494 (5.12%)
- Canada, 98,593 (4.92%)
- Japan, 97,329 (4.86%)
- China, 75,043 (3.75%)
- Taiwan, 62,654 (3.13%)
- United Kingdom, 62,291 (3.11%)
- Singapore, 53,359 (2.66%)
- Malaysia, 36,789 (1.84%)
DOT also listed P168.52 billion in inbound visitor receipts as of April, over seven times the amount generated in the same timeframe last year.
“Because of the priority given for Philippine tourism by the Marcos Administration, we’re very optimistic for the prospects of our country in terms of being a tourism powerhouse in Asia anchored on the strength of our Filipino culture as well as the values of sustainability, resilience, and global competitiveness,” said the tourism secretary.
READ: Marcos Jr. vows gov’t support for pandemic-stricken tourism industry
“We are at the cusp of the massive success of tourism in the Philippines. You can feel it, you can hear it, you can see it, it’s our time, Philippines, it’s our time to become Asia’s leading tourism powerhouse, and with your help, we can achieve just that,” Frasco concluded.
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