By Gabriela Baron
The Philippines has breached two million tourist arrivals, Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Christina Frasco announced.
In an Instagram post, Frasco said the total international visitors as of Friday, May 12, has exceeded the entire year’s 2022 target of 1.7 million.
“Notwithstanding the challenges and the difficulties that our country has faced, the pandemic and the various calamities that have come into our shores, the good news is that this has done nothing to break the Filipino spirit or [diminish] the beauty of the Philippines,” Frasco wrote on Instagram on Saturday, May 13.
“You can feel it, you can hear it, you can see it, it’s our time, Philippines!” she said.
The Tourism department recorded a total of 2.2 tourists from the period of Jan. 1 to May 12, with South Korea delivering 487,502 visitors, followed by the United States of America with 352,894, Australia with 102,494, Canada with 98,593, and Japan with 97,329.
The DOT also recorded P168.52 billion in inbound visitor receipts from January to April or 782.59% higher than the P19 billion in tourism revenues generated in the same period in 2022. — cf
