Koreans still top visitors at over 1 M a year

MANILA, Philippines - South Koreans remain the top tourists in the Philippines, posting over a million arrivals a year.

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said Koreans are followed by Americans, Japanese, Chinese and Australians in terms of tourist arrivals.

“China and Japan are still very close. But you can assume that monthly, you have around 100,000 arrivals from Korea,” Jimenez told reporters at the “Tourism Star Philippines” awarding ceremony Thursday night at the Raffles and Fairmont Hotel in Makati.

Jimenez said primary destinations in the country for Korean tourists are Manila, Cebu, Bohol and Southern Luzon.

Jimenez said the Department of Tourism (DOT) is confident that the country would rake in $6 billion in tourism revenues this year.

“We are now close to $5 billion a year in income from foreign arrivals. We were able to improve our product offerings so we are making more money than the actual. Our revenue is very strong because we get them to stay longer,” he said.

“It’s harder work, as you can see hotels are tired. Occupancy is very high. So employment is on target, revenue is on target.”

Jimenez noted that major markets such as Taiwan, Japan and US are again growing.

“We have what we call site-specific advertising now. So now the advertising as you can see is Davao, Cebu, not only Philippines. We’re getting people to get familiar with more places in the Philippines to see more things. But of course, it takes money so we do it little by little.”

Jimenez said he hopes to bring the target as close as possible to six-million arrivals and approaching the $6-billion mark for foreigners.