Jan to May tourist arrivals top 3.4M

MANILA, Philippines — Over 3.4-million foreign tourists visited the Philippines between January and May this year, announced the Department of Tourism (DOT).

Of the 3,489,270 tourists that arrived in the country in the first five months of 2019, a bulk came from South Korea and China with 788,530 and 733,769 respectively, or over 40 percent of the figure, the agency said in a statement yesterday.

Other countries that recorded high tourist arrivals were the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Malaysia.

Of the said countries, China recorded the biggest increase in tourist arrivals with 30.96 percent.

Meanwhile, South Korea, China and Taiwan recorded double-digit increases in tourist arrivals this year compared to last year.

Tourist arrivals between January and May this year in- creased by 9.76 percent com- pared to the figures for the same period last year, when 3,178,984 tourists came to the country.

DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat attributed the increase in tourist arrivals to “the preservation of the environment” that can “go hand-in-hand with economic gains.”