The Philippines has already received over two million international visitors this month, the Department of Tourism (DoT) reported on April 24.
The country’s tourism receipts from January 1 to March 31 also reached around 157.62 billion pesos (US$2.73 billion), an estimated 120.70 per cent recovery rate from the 130.59 billion pesos revenue gained from the same period in 2019 or the milestone year for Philippine tourism before the global lockdowns and industry standstill.
Based on DoT’s monitoring data, as of April 24, 2024, a total of 2,010,522 international visitors entered the country, with 94.21 per cent (1,894,076) of the country’s total international arrivals delivered by foreign tourists, while 5.79 per cent (116,446) are overseas Filipinos. This is 15.11 per cent higher than the international arrivals recorded in the same period last year pegged at 1,746,630.
South Korea maintains its spot as the Philippines’ top source market in terms of inbound visitor arrivals with 27.19 per cent (546,726), followed by the US at 15.71 per cent (315,816), China with 6.49 per cent (130,574), Japan with 6.13 per cent (123,204), and Australia with 4.38 per cent (88,048). Ranking from sixth to tenth are Canada, Taiwan, the UK, Singapore, and Germany, respectively.
The country is targeting to welcome 7.7 million international visitors this year, near its pre-pandemic record-breaking achievement in 2019 which ended with an estimated 8.26 million inbound visitor arrivals.
“The Department of Tourism sees a positive trajectory for the country’s international tourist arrivals this year. We are hopeful that with more investments in tourism infrastructure as well as much needed increase in connectivity as well as improvements in air, land, and sea infrastructure and accessibility, the numbers can further increase,” commented tourism secretary Christina Garcia Frasco.
