The data collected by the country’s Department of Tourism (DOT) indicated an increase in tourist arrivals this year by disclosing a total of 631,139 arrivals for the month of January.

This reflected an impressive growth of 16.48 percent from the 542,258 sum for the first month of 2016, generating a sum of Php 21.681 billion in receipts.

“We have to keep the momentum going now that we are in the implementation phase of the National Tourism Development Plan for 2016-2022, which aims to unleash the potentials of our tourism industry and make it more competitive,” said Teo, referring to the impetus gained in the country’s successful hosting of the Miss Universe pageant last January 30.

She also noted a sharp increase of arrivals from the East Asian market, which posted a 76.46 percent growth from January last year and rose to third biggest market in China.

In the previous months, Korea is the biggest visitor market with 154,367 arrivals, followed by United States, 99,435; China, 85,948; Japan, 51,516; and Australia, 27,826.

Also posting significant growth in visitor arrivals are Canada, 24,352; Taiwan, 21,926; United Kingdom, 15,747; Singapore, 12,000, and for the first time, India with 11,805.

Data also showed an average daily expenditure of Php 3,659 while the average per capita expenditure for the month amounted to Php 38,823 and stayed in the country for an average of 10.61 nights.

Korea also remains the top spending market with visitor expenditure of almost Php 6.5 billion. USA comes second with visitor spending of about Php 3.69 billion. Japan is third with P2.12 billion; Australia fourth, Php 1.59 billion, and Canada with Php 1.09 billion.