Country lures ‘milestone’ 6.6 million tourists in 2017

More than 6.6 million foreign tourists visited the country in 2017, an 11-percent rise from the previous year, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said on Thursday.

Data released by the DOT showed that the 6,620,908 foreign visitors bested the 5,967,005 total in 2016.

Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo called the tourist traffic a “milestone,” saying Philippine tourism “bested” the average tourism growth of Asia and the Pacific as well as Southeast Asia, placed at 6 percent and 8 percent, respectively, by the UN World Tourism Organization’s latest World Tourism Barometer.

South Koreans remained the country’s top visitors with 1,607,821 arrivals.

The DOT said Boracay and Cebu remained the top destinations for Koreans. China came in second with 968,447 arrivals, followed by the United States with 957,813, Japan with 584,180 and Australia with 259,433. —JEROME ANING