Malacañang was happy to announce on Thursday that according to figures from the Department of Tourism (DOT), the country will meet its target of 5.5 million tourist arrivals in 2013.
According to the Business Mirror, there were 1,271,579 foreign visitor arrivals for the first quarter of 2013, compared to 1,148,072 for the 2012 first quarter. This is the equivalent of a 10.76 percent growth in tourist arrivals.
Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the first quarter figures were attained because of record arrivals. This was the first time where there were more than 400,000 foreign tourist arrivals for three months in a row.
