International visitor arrivals in the Philippines surged past the five million mark in August, boding bright prospects of attaining the tourism industry targets going into the last quarter of 2019.
The Department of Tourism (DOT), in a statement, said inbound foreign guests reached 5,554,950 for the period of January to August this year, indicating a 14.08 percent increase from the 4,869,417 tourists recorded during the same period of 2018.
For the month of August alone, a total of 702,843 visitors arrived based on the data released by the DOT Office of Tourism Development Planning, Research and Information Management (DOT-OTDPRIM). This number is 27.54% higher than the 551,088 arrivals in the same month last year.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat expressed appreciation for the support of tourism industry stakeholders in the private sector as well as the local government units (LGUs) in the implementation of the government’s sustainable development program throughout the country’s 7,641 islands.
