AN administration lawmaker yesterday said a visit to the country by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will help the Philippines’ tourism sector.
“South Korea has been the Philippines’ No. 1 supplier of foreign visitors for years, and we are counting on Mr. Yoon’s visit to encourage even more Koreans to spend their vacations here,” said Quezon City Rep. Marvin Rillo, a vice chair of the House committee on tourism. “We could use a larger number of recreational travelers from South Korea to help our highly labor-intensive tourism industry create additional jobs for Filipinos.”
The South Korean leader’s plan to visit the Philippines, which will take place either this year or next year, was conveyed by Lee Sang-Hwa, Seoul’s new ambassador to Manila, when he presented his credentials to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Malacañang on Monday.
Rillo issued the statement as the new tourism campaign slogan of the Department of Tourism was bashed after it was discovered that the ad agency that produced it used non-original/stock videos which showed tourist attractions from other countries.
“Mr. Yoon’s visit will surely boost not only the government-to-government, but also the people-to-people relations between the Philippines and South Korea. This augurs well for our tourism enterprises,” Rillo said.
Rillo noted that 673,841 South Koreans visited the Philippines from January to June this year, accounting for 25 percent of around 2.5 million foreigners who traveled to the Philippines in the first half of 2023, according to DOT statistics.
A total of 1,989,322 South Koreans traveled to the Philippines in 2019, the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which accounted 24 percent of about 8.2 million foreigners who arrived in the country that year.
Despite harsh global air travel restrictions, Rillo said, at least 773,000 South Koreans managed to visit the Philippines in the three years from 2020.
