MANILA, 15 December 2023: Philippines tourism passed the country’s post-Covid targets, with the Department of Tourism (DOT) reporting this week that visitor arrivals surpassed 5 million for year-to-date 12 December.
Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco commented on the performance: “As one the last countries in ASEAN to open up to tourism (post-Covid), I am happy to report that as of 12 December, we have breached the 5 million mark in terms of international visitors contributing an impressive PHP439.50 billion in receipts.”
Sshe presented the data and tourism outlook last Tuesday during the Department’s Presentation of Accomplishments at the Dusit Thani Manila.
For the year to date ending 12 December, the Philippines welcomed 5,069,752 international visitors. Of that total, 4,658,123 or 91.88%, were foreign tourists, while the remaining 411,629 or 8.12%, were overseas Filipinos.
South Korea topped the chart as the Philippines’ top source market with 1,341,029 arrivals, followed by the US with 836,694; Japan with 285,655; China with 252,171; and Australia with 238,487.
Meanwhile, Canada landed in sixth place with 206,571, followed by Taiwan with 186,140, the UK with 141,516, Singapore with 140,633, and Malaysia with 92,383.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) World Tourism Barometer, the Asia Pacific region’s average recovery rate is 62% from January to September. The Philippines’ recovery rate was 65.54% from January to September 2023.
Regarding visitor receipts, Secretary Frasco shared that the country is “recovering faster than expected”, with PHP458 billion in visitor receipts from January to November this year, or already 95.85% of 2019 figures.
Meanwhile, tourism created 5.35 million jobs from 2.6 million visitor arrivals in 2022, or 11 for every 100 Filipinos.
(Source: DOT Philippines)
