The Department of Tourism (DOT) on Tuesday (Mar. 5) expressed confidence in sustaining the countryโs tourism gains under the Marcos administration, with international visitor arrivals to the Philippines breaching the 1.2-million mark in just a little over the first two months of 2024.
โ๐๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ, [๐๐ข๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ 5], ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ข๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ 1.2 ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ท๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด: ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ถ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฎ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด,โ enthused Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco.
Based on the DOTโs report for January to March 2024 as of March 5, international tourist arrivals to the Philippines have tallied 1,227,815.
Foreign tourist arrivals took the lionโs share, with 1,160,129 or 94.49 percent. Meanwhile, 67,686 or 5.51 percent consist of Overseas Filipinos (OFs).
According to Secretary Frasco, this is 22.86 percent higher than the 999,390 arrivals received by the country in the same period in 2023.
In terms of international visitor arrivals, South Korea remains the countryโs top source market for visitors with 349,956 or 28.50 percent of the total, followed by the United States of America (USA) with 195,603 or 15.93 percent, China with 85,876 (6.99%), Japan with 73,159 (5.96%), and Canada landing on the fifth spot with 50,555 (4.12%).
Meanwhile, Australia took the sixth spot with 50,488 (4.11%), Taiwan with 42,955 (3.50%), United Kingdom with 30,507 (2.48%), Singapore with 25,253 (2.06%), and Germany with 20,816 (1.70%).
Notably, the DOT is also seeing an increase in terms of estimated visitor receipts.
Based on data from the Visitor Sample Survey, estimated visitor receipts for January 2024 have totaled USD 652.26 million, or 4.84 percent higher than the USD 622.14 million recorded in January 2023.
It may be recalled that in 2023, the Philippines received over 5.45 million international visitor arrivals, successfully breaching the 4.8 million arrivals target set by the industry. This year, the country has a baseline target of 7.7 million arrivals.
