The Philippines has earned at least P100 billion from the tourism sector since border restrictions and health protocols were eased since February this year, the Department of Tourism (DOT) disclosed on Tuesday, Nov. 15.
DOT Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco said the revenue was sourced from the arrival of more than two million tourists in the past eight months.
“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,” Frasco said.
She added the strong tourism presence at moment has also translated a healthy business and livelihood opportunities for the Filipinos
At recent data showed a total of 2,025,421 visitor arrivals to the Philippines.
Of this number, the majority or 1,487,343 (73.43 percent) are foreign tourists, while 538,078 or 26.57 percent are overseas Filipinos.
Meanwhile, according to the DOT’s statistics office, visitor arrivals from February to September 2022 raked in an estimated Php 100.7 billion, recording a 1938.14 percent increase from the P4.94 billion for the same period last year.
In terms of number of foreign tourist arrivals count per country, the United States of America (USA) continue to hold the first place with 385,121 or 19.01 percent.
South Korea and Australia came in second and third, with 285,583 (14.10%) and 96,297 (4.75%), respectively. Landing on the fourth and fifth spots are Canada with 89,248 (4.41%) and the United Kingdom with 77,267 (3.81%).
Other countries that made it to the top ten list of countries with the most tourist arrivals to the Philippines are Japan with 75,564 (3.73%), India with 41,292 (2.04%), Singapore with 39,801 (1.97%), Malaysia with 35,128 (1.73%), and Vietnam with 32,970 or 1.63 percent.