By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday welcomed the Philippines’ ranking as among countries named as the best places to live and work in the world.
“This only shows that the continuing peace and order campaign of the government significantly contributed in creating a secure environment where our fellowmen and even foreign tourists feel safe to work, live, and do business in our country,” PNP chief, Gen. Oscar Albayalde said in a press briefing.
A Forbes article cited the 2019 HSBC Expat’s annual survey that ranked the Philippines as the 24th best place to live and work which was conducted among 18,000 expats across 163 markets. Three major metrics were used: living, career opportunity, and family life.
The Philippines is just a rank behind the United States which placed 23rd, and ahead of China which ranked 26th.
Citing a report from the Department of Tourism (DOT), Albayalde also said from January to May of this year, a total of 3,489,270 tourists visited the Philippines, marking a 9.76 percent increase from last year’s figure.
“All these surveys and data indicate a positive outlook of our peace and order situation and an affirmation of our accomplishments in the campaign against criminality, illegal drugs, and corruption,” the PNP chief stressed.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said that from 3.4 million tourists recorded from January to May in 2018 is close to breaching the 3.5-million mark this year and it only shows that the preservation of our environment can go hand in hand with economic gains.
Puyat said she is also pleased to note that for the month of May, tourist arrivals saw an impressive 15.62 percent growth, the highest month-per-month growth rate this year, from 537,743 last year to 621,719 this year.
The country’s number one source market, South Korea, continues its foothold in the top spot with 788,530 January-May arrivals, chalking up an 11.76 percent growth rate comprising 22.6 percent of the total arrivals.
China trails closely behind with 733,769 arrivals for a staggering 30.96 percent increase and with a 21.03 percent market share.
Sustaining its third and fourth rankings are the USA with 472,469 (+1.98 percent) and Japan with 281,988 (+2.19 percent).
Another market with a remarkable double-digit growth rate is Taiwan at fifth place with 128,986 (+27.24 percent).
Australia with 123,851 (+2.7 percent), Canada with 114,605 (+5.01 percent), and the United Kingdom with 92,914 (+3.49 percent), posted positive growth placing sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively.
Singapore followed at the ninth spot with 64,951 (-14.38 percent) with Malaysia winding up the top ten markets with 62,144 (+1.81 percent).
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