MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism (DOT) has set its target international visitor arrivals in 2024 to 7.7 million.
This is almost double the number of its 2023 target at 4.8 million foreign visitors, but still lower than the arrival count in 2019.
“I understand that this is not yet our pre-pandemic numbers of 2019 at over 8.2 million international arrivals,” Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said in a statement.
“But what I can assure you is that we will push as hard as we can and fully activate our contingencies with other government agencies in order to breach this target and bring [us] closer to pre-pandemic levels,” she added.
Frasco recently announced that the country has already breached the 5-million mark in international tourist arrivals for 2023 at 5,067,752.
The arrivals contributed nearly P440 billion to the Philippine economy in 2023.
From January 1 to November 30, 2023, international visitor receipts have also been registered at 439.50 billion, or 95 percent of the 458 billion receipts recorded in 2019, or before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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