January was a good month for Philippine tourism!
We were able to breach the 500,000 mark for the first time in our country’s history. Tourist arrivals in the Philippines reached 542,258 visitors. That’s a 13.17 percent growth versus the 479,149 for the same month last year.
According to a report released by the Department of Tourism, “The strong performance of the industry is expected to continue this year as the industry is gearing for aggressive marketing activities and international events.”
For the month of January, the average tourist stayed in the Philippines for about 10.31 nights with an average daily expenditure of PHP4,904.10.
This is good news for hotels, travel agencies, tour guides, restaurants, souvenir shops and pretty much for every Filipino since the the boost in tourism translated to PHP21.94 billion in visitor receipts.
Korea topped the list of markets with 147,165 visitors, which was more than one-fourth of the total arrivals to the country. Claiming the second spot on top markets was the USA with 84,506 visitors.
In spite of territorial disagreements, China made third on the list of top markets with 48,708 visitors.
The top three spending markets are Korea, USA and Japan.
We’re glad to see other countries taking notice of our side of the world.
