Tourist arrivals breach 4-M mark

MANILA, Philippines - Foreign tourist arrivals in the Philippines breached the four million mark as of the end of  August 2016, sustaining  the upward growth trend.

This is the first time the country surpassed four million arrivals in just the first eight months of the year.

According to the latest report from the DOT, the figure was 12.59 percent higher than the 3.59 million arrivals in the same period last year.

With the exception of May and August, most months of the year have observed double-digit gains so far.

For August alone, the country welcomed a total of 502,739 tourists or an increase  4.59 percent year on year.

The DOT noted this was the first time the country surpassed 500,000 arrivals during the month of August.

Neighboring countries from Asia contributed to 60.95 percent of the total market share during the eight month period, while North and South America flew in 17.47 percent of the total visitors.

About 10.38 percent of the arrivals came from Europe while 5.13 percent came from Australasia.

Korea continued to be the country’s top source market with a total of 976,499 in tourist arrivals.  US came in second with an aggregate of 584,149 in arrivals and China with a total inbound traffic of 484,567.

China registered the highest growth in arrivals from January to August with 50.29 percent.

The fourth largest market was Japan, with a total of 367,144 visitors. Australia ranked fifth accounting for 161,016 arrivals.

About 157,517 tourists were from Taiwan; 120,241 from Singapore; 117,535 from UK; 114,074 from Canada; and 95,129 from Malaysia.     

The Philippine tourism sector also saw substantial growth from Hong Kong and India.

Meanwhile, the Philippines earned P164.25 billion in tourism receipts from January to August this year, up 7.92 percent.

The month of August slowed down the growth in tourism receipts as total revenues decreased by 28.58 percent to P15.69 billion.

Average length of stay for tourists was 9.65 nights while average daily expenditure for the month amounted to P4,095.32.