South Koreans still top Philippines foreign visitors

MANILA, Philippines — Koreans maintained the top spot for the most number of foreigners who visited the country this year, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said yesterday.

Data culled from the BI showed that from January to November, 1,467,982 Koreans visited the country, surpassing their arrivals for the entire year of 2016 that totaled 1,448,362.

President Duterte’s relationship with Beijing may have boosted the number of arrivals from the People’s Republic of China by 207,542.

Last year, 588,945 Chinese came to the country, compared to 796,487 so far recorded this year. 

However, the BI data showed that even if the President has been able to keep a good relationship with Tokyo, there was a decline in the number of Japanese who visited the country. 

In 2016, the bureau recorded 512,147 Japanese visitors. This year, BI has so far only listed 510,736 arrivals.

BI statistics also showed that the top 10 countries of origin are the same this year as in 2016. 

The 10 countries held the same position as last year, except for the UK that swapped ranking with Canada. 

Last year, UK was in seventh spot while Canada took the eighth place. During the first 11 months of this year, BI said Canada got ahead and landed in the seventh place while UK dropped by a rank, ending up in the eighth spot. 

In 2016, Koreans were followed by nationals from the US with 909,331; China, 588,945; Japan, 512,147; Australia, 242,690; Taiwan, 196,954; UK, 192,022; Canada, 186,422; Malaysia, 135,675; and Singapore, 117,097.

In the first 11 months of this year, Korea was followed by the US with 869,732; China, 796,487; Japan, 510,736; Australia, 218,719; Taiwan, 196,485; Canada, 179,522; UK, 177,321; Malaysia, 127,232; and Singapore, 112,603.