Americans top the list of the foreign nationals who spent their Christmas in the country, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Monday, Dec, 27.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said that as expected Filipinos registered the highest number of arrivals with a total of more than 141,000.
The BI chief said Americans led the number of foreign visitors with a total of 12,455, followed by Canadians, 2,805 and Japanese, 1,645.
BI port operations chief Carlos Capulong said those who arrived in December 24 and 25 more than doubled the figure last year.
He said last year 5,478 Filipinos temporarily went home for the holiday, compared to 11,074 this year.
"While the number of arrivals were quite low, we are confident that more Filipinos and foreigners will spend Christmas in the coming years here as the government continues it's vaccination program against the pandemic," Capulong said.