The number of foreign visitor arrivals into the Philippines this year has surpassed 4 million, accounting for more than Php316 billion in tourism spending.
Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco provided the update while speaking at a travel expo last Friday, revealing there had been a total of 4,005,465 international arrivals through the first nine months of the year. This means the Philippines is on track to comfortably exceed 5 million arrivals in 2023, well above its stated 4.8 million target.
“I am very pleased to deliver the good news that today we have managed to reach the four-million mark in international arrivals in the Philippines,” Frasco said.
“The Philippines continues to be a top-of-mind destination all over the world. We have a number of award-winning destinations. We’re optimistic that we will be able to meet if not exceed the target set for the end of the year.”
According to Frasco, South Korea remains as the country’s top tourist market with 1.04 million visitors, followed by the United States, Japan, China, and Australia.
However, Chinese visitation remains slow with 194,209 arrivals so far, compared with more than 1.7 million in 2019.
Franco said the Department of Tourism is pushing for visa policy reforms aimed at attracting more Chinese tourists.
“Tourism is back,” she said. “What I can assure our partners in the private sector in the tourism sector is that we will try to, as best as we can, to match the hard work (they) put in to ensure that this industry continues to thrive.”
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