VISITOR arrivals to the Philippines grew by 10.6 percent to 4.47 million in the first eight months of the year.
A report from the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed that our Asian neighbors delivered the bulk of arrivals at 62.2 percent of total, or some 2.78 million. Of the total arrivals, visitors from East Asia accounted for 53 percent with 2.36 million, while the rest came from the Association of Southeast Asean Nations with 319,584 arrivals (7.15 percent of total) and South Asia with 87,369 arrivals.
In a text message, DOT Spokesman Assistant Secretary Frederick M. Alegre said: “Despite the many challenges, we are very happy with the report on arrivals. Secretary Wanda [Corazon T.] Teo and the entire DOT team are working collectively to achieve the 7 million arrivals target.”
Tourists from the Americas amounted to 806,094, representing just 18.03 percent of total inbound visitors; those from Europe numbered 465,616 (10.41 percent of total); and from those Australasia-Pacific reached 214,778 (4.8 percent).
The DOT, however, failed to release its cumulative arrivals data, preferring not to show which specific markets increased or decreased during the period in review.
But based on research by the BusinessMirror, South Korea remained the top inbound market for the Philippines, reaching some 1.07 million arrivals in January to August 2017, but was just 9.6 percent higher than the same period last year. The United States was still in second place with 660,875 arrivals, and was 13.13 percent higher than last year’s arrivals. China again edged out Japan for third place with 641,412 arrivals, and increased by 32.4 percent from January to August 2016. Japan ranked fourth with 405,571 arrivals (+10.5 percent). In fifth spot was Taiwan with 167,461 arrivals (+6.3 percent), surpassing Australia’s 166,993 arrivals (+3.7 percent).
Completing the top 10 markets for the first eight months of August 2017 were Canada with 134,459 arrivals (+17.9 percent); the United Kingdom 125,008 (+6.4 percent); Singapore 111,468, which decreased by 7.3 percent; and Malaysia 95,179, up slightly from last year’s 95,129.
Beijing has committed to send 1 million Chinese tourists to the Philippines this year. This means an average of some 90,000 Chinese tourists a month have to come to the Philippines from September to December for the 1-million commitment to be attained. The DOT report noted that, in August alone, visitors from China surged by 55 percent to 95,687.
July to September is often considered a low season for visitor arrivals in the Philippines, but often picks up toward the end of the year until January. For August, total inbound traffic reached 545,254, up by 8.5 percent from August 2016.
Manila continued to be the main gateway for inbound traffic with 332,147, accounting for some 61 percent of total; followed by Cebu at 121,170 (22.22 percent); Kalibo 65,271 (11.97 percent); Clark 16,335 (3 percent); Davao 1,045 (0.19 percent); Palawan 774 (0.14 percent); Laoag 625 (0.11 percent); and Iloilo 221 (0.04 percent).
Arrivals via cruise ships in August reached 3,775, via Boracay, Aklan. The DOT is targeting cruise arrivals to reach 117,000 via 105 port calls in 2017.