Tourism revenue has surpassed P100 billion, with over two million tourists visiting the country since its borders reopened for leisure travel in February of this year, according to the Department of Tourism (DOT).
As of November 14, the DOT reported a total of 2,025,421 visitor arrivals in the country. Foreign tourists account for 73.43% of the total, or 1,487,343, while abroad Filipinos account for 26.57%, or 538,078.
According to the most recent data from the agency, visitor arrivals from February to September 2022 are expected to total P100.7 billion, up from P4.94 billion in the same period last year.
“Our latest figures have reached well beyond the 1.7 million tourist projections of the DOT. This goes to show that there is such a huge demand for travel into our beautiful country and that the Marcos administration’s prioritization of tourism is placing our country on the right track to recovery,” said DOT Secretary Christina Frasco in a press statement.
“We therefore must meet this with the continued implementation of enabling mechanisms that will convey not only the country’s openness to welcome more tourists but also conduciveness to the tourism business and livelihood opportunities for our fellow Filipinos,” she added.
In terms of international visitor arrivals counted per country, the United States maintains top place with 385,121 (19.01%). South Korea came in second with 285,583 (14.10%), and Australia came in third with 96,297 (4.75%).
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Over 2 million tourists visit the Philippines – DOT
Canada is ranked fourth, with 89,248 (4.41%), and the United Kingdom is ranked fifth, with 77,267 (3.81%).
Japan came in sixth with 75,564 (3.73%), India came in seventh with 41,292 (2.04%), Singapore came in eighth with 39,801 (1.97%), Malaysia came in nine with 35,128 (1.73%), and Vietnam came in tenth with 32,970 (1.63%).
Meanwhile, March recorded a “record high” number of tourists going to Boracay since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
It is said that most of those who went to the famous island did ‘revenge travel,’ or you made up for not being able to travel due to restrictions caused by the pandemic.
Boracay recorded 150,597 tourists in March 2022, close to the 172,207 number of tourists in March 2019 or before the pandemic.
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