The number of foreign visitor arrivals to the Philippines remained suppressed in August, with arrivals from the country’s key source markets of South Korea and China falling again after showing some signs of growth in July.
According to information from the Department of Tourism, total visitor arrivals in August was 457,438 – down from 508,726 in July and 3.2% lower compared with the same month in 2024.
The August figure included 118,681 arrivals from Korea – largely in line with July but 18.4% lower than August 2024. Likewise, arrivals from China of 23,088 were down 9.7% month-on-month although showed 8.4% improvement year-on-year.
For the first eight months of 2025 combined, total visitation to the Philippines is down 1.56% to 3,963,794, although foreign arrivals are down further by 2.78% to 3,602,338. Overseas Filipinos have been returning in greater numbers, up 12.5% to 361,456.
South Korea, China and Taiwan have all shown significant declines through August, while the likes of the US, Japan, Australia and Canada are among top 10 source markets to have shown gains.