Tourism to Philippines soars at 4 mn
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The Philippines received a total of 4,272,811 foreign visitors in 2012, posting a 9.07% increase from 3,917,454 visitors in 2011.
Of the total number, visitors from the Middle East reached 57,275. Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait continue to be the top source markets from the region.
Philippine Tourism Middle East Rep Office director, Mohamad Masri said: “We are very enthusiastic about growing interest from this part of the world. More Arab tourists are looking to the country beyond Manila to explore the amazing islands. We expect to achieve better growth for this year as more flights are being launched by both the region’s national airlines as well as the Philippine carriers.”
Meanwhile, South Korea set a all-time high by supplying a total of 1,031,155 visitors or 24.13% of the total visitor volume to the Philippines. Registering 11.45% growth from 2012, South Korea remains the biggest market and the first to contribute one million visitors.
The United States came in second with 625,626 visitors, equivalent to a 15.27% share. Japan ranked third with 412,474 visitors or 9.65% of total inbound traffic.
“Crossing the four-million mark is a feat in itself. We remain confident and will continue to build on the positive energies in order to cross the five-million milestone in 2013. It also puts us well on track to achieve our ultimate goal of 10 million visitor arrivals by 2016,” said tourism secretary Ramon R Jimenez.
The country achieved 93.8% of its 4,556,582 visitor arrival goal for 2012. Some shortfalls were felt due to economic and political pressures from traditional markets such as US, Europe, and China. However despite a few bumps in the road, all key source markets still registered positive growth for the year.