By Brian Jules Campued
The Philippines recorded a total of 5,450,557 international visitors from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 last year, exceeding the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) target number of tourist arrivals for 2023.
According to the DOT, this is about 650,000 higher than its target of 4.8 million international visitors projected to visit the country last year.
Based on its monitoring data, 91.80% or 5,003,475 of these international arrivals are foreigners. The remaining 8.2% or 447,082 arrivals are overseas Filipinos.
Additionally, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) logged a total of 49,892 arrivals on New Year’s Eve, 34% of which were foreign nationals.
Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said the country’s local tourism industry is “recovering faster than expected.”
“The country’s international tourism receipts have surged at an estimate of P482.54 billion from January 1 to December 31, 2023,” she said, noting that the pre-pandemic period recorded P482.15 billion in international receipts.
“These numbers speak very well of the performance of the tourism industry under the Marcos Administration,” Frasco stressed.
The country logged the highest number of foreign tourists from South Korea which delivered 26.41% or 1,439,336 foreign tourists, followed by the United States at 16.57% or 903,299 tourists, Japan at 5.61% or 305,580, Australia with 4.89% or 266,551, and China with 4.84% 263,836.
‘Looking ahead to 2024’
The DOT has set its goal of 7.7 million international tourist arrivals by year-end 2024.
Secretary Frasco also cited the implementation of the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) 2023 to 2028 that was approved by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in May 2023.
The administration’s “blueprint” for the tourism industry contains DOT’s seven strategic goals including the improvement of tourism infrastructure and accessibility and enhancement of overall tourist experience, among others.
She added that the Tourism department will build an additional 18 rest areas for tourists throughout the country this year.
The DOT is also planning to launch four more hubs of the Hop-On, Hop-Off (HoHo) Travel by the Hubs project across Metro Manila.
“Looking ahead to 2024, our commitment to the transformation of [the] Philippine tourism is unwavering. Guided by our National Tourism Development Plan 2023-2028, we are poised for a thriving tourism landscape, evident in surpassing our targets in international and domestic arrivals and receipts, fostering economic prosperity, and further job creation for our people,” Frasco said. –cf