THE Department of Tourism (DOT) remains firm in its 1.5-million target for Chinese visitors this year despite the six-month closure of Boracay Island, a favorite destination of the market.
This developed as the number of Chinese travelers to the Philippines grew by 54.43 percent to 371,429 in the first quarter of 2018, nipping closely at the heels of the South Koreans, whose arrivals grew by 8.22 percent to 477,087.
“Our target for the Chinese arrivals this year remains at 1.5 million as we strive for more quality tourists who spend more in the country,” Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said in a news statement, as she recalled the latest United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Barometer, which ranked Chinese tourists as the world’s top tourism spenders in 2017.
Total foreign tourists who visited the country from January to March 2018 reached some 2.05 million, up 14.8 percent from the 1.78 million recorded in the same period last year.
“We already welcomed over 2 million foreign guests to the Philippines in just three months compared to last year, when it took four months or until April to reach [that same number],” the DOT chief said.
Teo noted the “tight contest between the Chinese and the Koreans” in terms of visitor arrivals.
“In fact, these two key markets, together with the Americans, already comprise more than half of our tourist arrivals [for the period],” she added.
Boracay Island was closed on April 26 to give way to the government’s rehabilitation efforts, causing many Chinese tourists to cancel their holidays in the country including plane-charter services.
Sources in the tourism industry hope the recent governors meetings by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila will help improve the sentiment of foreigners toward the Philippines, and result in increased tourist arrivals. About 4,200 delegates from around the world participated in the ADB meetings in Manila from May 2 to 5.
Meanwhile, in terms of visitor arrivals for the first quarter of the year, in third place were tourists from the United States at 284,946 (+10.44 percent), followed by the Japanese at 181,178 (+8.98 percent) and Australians at 74,027 (+10.81 percent).
Other top source markets for tourists included Canada, 70,501 (+15.88 percent); Taiwan, 59,877 (-7.73 percent); the United Kingdom, 56,521 (+19.36 percent); Singapore, 44,398 (+9.91 percent); Malaysia, 37,090 (+7.79 percent); Hong Kong, 36,777 (+41.88 percent); and India, 32,999 (+22.65 percent).
Teo did not say what caused the dip in visitors from Taiwan. The DOT also failed to release the tourism receipts for the period.
According to the UNWTO Barometer, China spent $258 billion (roughly P13.64 trillion) last year. The market was followed by the US at $135 billion (P7.16 trillion), Germany at $84 billion (P4.45 trillion), tbe UK at $63 billion (P3.34 billion) and France at $41 billion (P2.17 trillion).
On the other hand, Chinese tourists in the Philippines spent almost $50 (P2,650) per day, with an average length of stay of 6.24 nights last year, according to the DOT Annual Visitor Sample Survey of 2017.
Chinese tourists like to go shopping, sightseeing and on nature and adventure trips when in the Philippines, the DOT survey indicated.
They also spent a considerable sum at local department stores, souvenir and curio shops, as they buy food delicacies, apparel, textile and garments, and arts and crafts.
The DOT also released the tourism receipts the country generated in January this year. The agency said the country earned P37.65 billion ($745.4 million) in visitor receipts in January, up some 74 percent from the P21.7 billion ($435.92 million) generated in January 2017.
This amount was earned from the 732,506 foreign visitors who arrived in the said month, according to DOT data.
The average daily expenditure of foreign tourists in January was P6,426.77, as they stayed 9.10 nights. The average per capita expenditure of each foreign tourist in the country that month was P58.547.33. The top 5 spending markets for January 2018 were South Korea at P11.1 billion, China at P6.24 billion, the United States at P5.82 billion, Japan at P3.2 billion, and Canada at P1.54 billion.
About 55 percent of the foreign visitors who came in January did so for pleasure or vacation, while the rest were for business or professional work. Of those who were here for a vacation, 45.3 percent were in the 25- to 34-year-old age bracket, while some 26 percent were in the 45- to 54-year-old age range. Some 18 percent of those who were on vacation visited friends or relatives.
Of those who were in the Philippines on business, some 57 percent were aged 25 to 34 years old, while about 48 percent were 34 to 44 years old. Only 0.6 percent came here for MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions).