Foreign tourist arrivals up 5.8% in January

MANILA, Philippines - Foreign tourist arrivals grew 5.8 percent to 461,363 in January from 436,079 in the same month last year, a top tourism official said.

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. told The STAR that receipts from inbound visitors in January this year amounted to $469 million.

He said Korea remains the biggest source with 25 percent or 118,305 visitors followed by the US with 71,042 arrivals and China with 9,583 visitors.

The government is optimistic that the performance of the tourism sector would not be greatly affected by the recent calamities that hit the country late last year.

Jimenez earlier said the government is sticking to its six million foreign tourists arrival target for 2014 while tourism revenues are expected to reach $6 billion this year and $8 billion in 2016.

The country’s total revenues from inbound tourists rose 15 percent to $4.4 billion or P186.15 billion in 2013 compared to the 2012 level.

The higher revenues was brought about by the improvement in the average daily expenditure of inbound tourists which also increased 8.7 percent to $101.12.

The overall average length of stay of visitors, however, remained at 9.6 nights. Visitors from the US had the longest average stay at 13.4 nights.

This year, the Philippines will be playing host to a number of big tourism events. Preparations for the Visit Philippines 2015 are also underway.

“We foresee better opportunities for growth this year as we continue to roll-out programs under the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP),” Jimenez said.

With the recent development, Jimenez called on Filipinos to be more responsive to tourism growth potentials.

“We also hope to engage more Filipinos in appreciating the value of tourism in the country’s inclusive growth agenda and encourage them to take an active role in growing the industry by being better hosts to both local and foreign tourists,” he said.