The Philippines has breached its target of 4.8 million international visitor arrivals as of November 27.
Secretary Christina Frasco of the Department of Tourism said the country has registered a total of 4,822,530 million visitors with foreign tourists still comprising the bulk of arrivals by 91.88 percent or 4,430,725, while the remaining 8.12 percent or 391,805 are returning overseas Filipinos.
South Korea remains the country’s top source market for foreign arrivals which brought in 1,271,602 tourists or 26.37 percent of the total, followed by the United States with 797,181 (16.53 percent), Japan with 272,735 (5.66 percent), China with 242,107 (5.02 percent), and Australia with 225,464 (4.68 percent) to complete the top five.
Frasco said foreign visitor receipts stood at P404 billion to date. Tourism now employs 5.35 million Filipinos
“With the implementation of the National Tourism Development Plan 2023 to 2028, we are beginning to see the merits of our strategies towards increasing connectivity, convenience, and equality in tourism development and promotions, as well as the invaluable partnership of our tourism stakeholders in the private sector,” said Frasco at the DOT’s 1st Philippine Golf Tourism Summit held at Grand Hyatt Manila.
