By Trisha Casabar
The Philippines logged a total of 3,000,079 international tourist arrivals from Jan. 1 to July 19, the Department of Tourism (DOT) reported.
Of this, 91.36% or 2,740,802 are foreign tourists, while the remaining 8.64% or 259,277 are overseas Filipinos.
“We are glad to report that in roughly seven months, we have already achieved the 3 million international visitor arrivals mark, reflecting continued robust recovery and the gains of the Marcos Administration towards the resurgence of [the] Philippine tourism,” Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said.
According to the DOT, South Korea delivered 741,658 (24.72%) of the total number of arrivals in the country followed by the United States with 550,569 (18.35%).
Australia ranked third among the country’s top source markets if foreign arrivals with 146,062 (4.87%) tourist arrivals, followed by Japan with 143,227 (4.77%), and Canada with 132,018 (4.40%).
It also recorded a total of P212,467,522,100.14 in inbound tourism receipts from Jan. 1 to June 30 this year. This is 502.02% higher than the P35,292,495,457.14 tourism revenue generated in the same period in 2022.
The Tourism department earlier raised its target to 4.8 million foreign visitors by the end of the year.
