The Philippines’ Department of Tourism (DoT) is optimistic about the Philippine tourism industry’s continuing resurgence post-lockdown, with visitor arrivals to the country breaching the four million mark on September 29.
Tourism secretary Christina Garcia Frasco announced that the DoT recorded a total of 4,005,465 visitor arrivals to the country from January 1 to September 29, 2023, bringing the country’s economy to over 316 billion pesos (US$5.5 billion).
The recovery of the tourism industry has not only contributed 6.2 per cent to the country’s GDP, but also resulted in the employment of Filipinos in 5.35 million tourism-related jobs, she pointed out.
Furthermore, the DoT is vigorously carrying out initiatives under the National Tourism Development Plan 2023-2028 that would sustain this growth and allow the industry to meet its target of 4.8 million arrivals this year.
Of the total arrivals for the period, 91.58 per cent are foreign visitors, while 8.42 per cent are Filipinos living overseas.
South Korea ranked first in terms of the country’s top source markets, delivering more than a quarter of the total international arrivals to the Philippines with 1,046,176, followed by the US with 679,090; Japan with 221,671; China with 194,258; and Australia with 187,143.
Other visitors came from Canada with 164,168; Taiwan with 146,396; the UK with 114,096; Singapore with 107,674; and Malaysia with 72,008.
