Countries in East Asia supplied 49.20 % of total tourism visitors to the Philippines for January to April 2016, leading to a growth of 14.25% percent in total visitor arrivals over the same period in 2015.
The April 2016 visitor arrival figures of the Department of Tourism (DOT) recorded 2,073,851 arrivals for the first four months of the year, reflecting the strong performance of the tourism industry.
According to DOT spokesperson, Undersecretary Benito Bengzon, Jr, “these encouraging tourism figures can be attributed to the DOT’s aggressive marketing activities, international events held in the country, and the foreign markets’ increasing awareness of the product offerings of the different Philippine destinations.”
By regional grouping, the East Asian region is the biggest source of arrivals with 1,020,434 tourists, accounting for almost half of the total visitor volume. Korea continues to supply the biggest arrivals to the country with a total of 481,596 arrivals for January to April 2016. This market accounted for 23.22 percent of the total arrivals. Except for Hong Kong and Macau, all countries from the East Asian markets posted increases, with China showing the biggest growth of 88.86 percent from its arrival of 126,293 in 2015 to 238,523 this year. Another high growth market is Taiwan which posted an increase of 28.94 percent
The United States of America ranked as the 2nd visitor-generating market with 303,951 visitors, constituting 14.66 percent of the total, and recording a 7.18 percent increase from the figure of 283,577 arrivals during the same period in 2015. China secured the 3rd spot, with 238,523 arrivals or an 11.50 percent share of the total arrivals. Japan followed in the fourth place by contributing 183,620 visitors, comprising 8.85 percent of the total inbound traffic. The 5th major market was Australia with 88,496 arrivals, comprising 4.27 percent of the total.
Rounding up the top ten visitor markets are Taiwan (3.46% share of total figures) with 71,656 arrivals, Canada (3.29% share) with 68,288 arrivals, United Kingdom (3.04% share of total) with 63,039 arrivals, Singapore (2.94% share) with 61,033 arrivals, and Malaysia (2.35% share) with 48,835 arrivals.
Countries which posted substantial growth in inbound traffic to the Philippines from January to April 2016 include France with 23,980 tourists (growth of +24.02%), Germany with 35,639 arrivals (+20.87%), Sweden with 11,588 arrivals (+20.16%), and India with 29,578 arrivals (growth of +22.15%) Undersecretary Bengzon reports that DOT’s estimated tourism receipts for January to April 2016 is Php86.66 billion, an increase of 12.34% over the 2015 receipts for the same period.