The Department of Tourism (DOT) expressed bullishness on the continued transformation of Philippine tourism under the Marcos administration in the succeeding years, as it successfully breached its year-end targets and achieved milestones for 2023.
Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco reported international visitor arrivals to the country not only surpassed the target but also breached the 5-million mark before year-end.
“I am happy to report that as of December 12, we have breached the 5-million mark in terms of international visitor arrivals contributing an impressive 439.50 billion pesos in receipts. With the holiday break fast approaching, we are confident we will further breach our earlier target of 4.8 million for 2023, underscoring our commitment to continuous growth for the industry and the economy,” Secretary Frasco said.
As of December 11, the Philippines has received a total of 5,069,752 international visitor arrivals. Of this number, 4,658,123 or 91.88 % are foreign tourists, while the remaining 411,629 or 8.12 % are Overseas Filipinos.
South Korea ranks first as the Philippines’ top source market with 1,341,029 arrivals, followed by the United States of America (USA) with 836,694; Japan with 285,655; China with 252,171; and Australia with 238,487. Meanwhile, Canada landed on the sixth place with 206,571, followed by Taiwan with 186,140, United Kingdom with 141,516, Singapore with 140,633, and Malaysia with 92,383.
According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, the average recovery rate of the Asia Pacific region is at 62% from January to September. The Philippines’ recovery in terms of international tourist arrivals is bearing promising results as it has already reached 65.54% from January-September 2023.
In terms of visitor receipts, Secretary Frasco shared that the country is “recovering faster than expected” with PHP 458 billion visitor receipts from January to November this year, or already 95.85% of 2019 figures.
Meanwhile, tourism created 5.35 million jobs from 2.6 million visitor arrivals in 2022, or 11 for every 100 Filipinos.
Earlier this year, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. had approved the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) 2023-2028, which serves as the DOT’s roadmap in the next few years, with connectivity, convenience, and equality as key strategies.
Secretary Frasco also shared the baseline target of 7.7 million international visitor arrivals next year.