Foreign tourist arrivals have breached the 4 million mark toward the second quarter of 2016. –
In the same period last year, the number of foreign visitors reached 3.59 million. This means that the number improved by 12.59%.
In August alone, the country welcomed a total of 502,739 tourists (an increase of 4.59% year on year), Philippine Star reported.
The report from DOT stated that neighboring countries contributed to 60.95% of the total market share during the eight month period, while North and South America flew in 17.47% of the total visitors. About 10.38% of the arrivals came from Europe while 5.13% came from Australasia.
Korea continued to be the country’s top source market with a total of 976,499 in tourist arrivals. US came in second with an aggregate of 584,149 in arrivals and China with a total inbound traffic of 484,567.
China registered the highest growth in arrivals from January to August with 50.29%.
The fourth largest market was Japan, with a total of 367,144 visitors. Australia ranked fifth accounting for 161,016 arrivals. About 157,517 tourists were from Taiwan; 120,241 from Singapore; 117,535 from UK; 114,074 from Canada; and 95,129 from Malaysia.
In September Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo said that DOT was targeting six million tourists by end of 2016.
