Tourist arrivals rise 7.7% in six months

MANILA, Philippines - Tourist arrivals increased 7.7 percent in the first half of the year, the Department of Tourism reported.

A total of 2,619,625 foreign visitors arrived in the Philippines as of end-June, up from the 2,433,428 arrivals in the same period last year.

Tourists from Korea, which accounted for 24.5 percent of arrivlas, climbed 17.3 percent  to 642,985 in the first half of the year from 547,971 last year.

Meanwhile, arrivals from the US made up 15.9 percent of the total and went up 6.8 percent to 415,949 as of end-June.

The third biggest source of tourists during the period was Japan with 237,264 visitors, followed by China with 190,325 and Australia with 119,120.

Other top sources of visitors during the six-month period included Singapore (92,817 arrivals), Taiwan (85,400), Canada (82,153), Malaysia (77,966), and the United Kingdom (76,024).

At the same time, the DOT said total visitor receipts or revenues grew 1.2 percent to P111.05 billion in the first semester from P109.77 billion in the same period in 2014.

For the month of June alone, tourist arrivals rose 4.9 percent to 390,486 from 372,293 in the same month last year.

Tourist revenues, meanwhile, fell 6.7 percent to P17.14 billion rom P18.36 billion a year ago.