By Katrina Gracia Consebido
The Department of Tourism (DOT) on Tuesday, Nov. 15, said that visitor arrivals to the Philippines reached 2,025,421 as of Nov. 14, accounting for P100.7 billion in tourism revenues since the Philippines’ eased border restrictions last February.
The revenues are up by 1938.14% from the P4.94 billion for the same period last year.
According to DOT Secretary Christina Frasco, the positive projections in the tourism sector is a testament that the Marcos administration is on the “right track” on its recovery from the pandemic.
“Our latest figures have reached well beyond the 1.7 million tourist projections of the DOT. This goes to show that there is such a huge demand for travel into our beautiful country and that the Marcos administration’s prioritization of tourism is placing our country on the right track to recovery,” Frasco said.
“We therefore must meet this with the continued implementation of enabling mechanisms that will convey not only the country’s openness to welcome more tourists but also conduciveness to tourism business and livelihood opportunities for our fellow Filipinos,” she added.
Of the visitor count, 1,487,343 or 73.43% are foreign tourists, while 538,078 or 26.57% are overseas Filipinos.
America tops the list of visitors with 385,121, followed by South Korea with 285,583, Australia with 96,297, Canada with 89,248, and the United Kingdom with 77,267.
The other countries with the most tourists to the Philippines are Japan with 75,564, India with 41,292, Singapore with 39,801, Malaysia with 35,128, and Vietnam with 32,970. –ag
