The Tourism Department plans to go all out on promotional activities after the House committee on appropriations agreed to increase marketing funds to P1 billion.
“Amid setbacks and mounting challenges, tourist arrivals are way up. Beefing up the department’s war chest, at least restoring it to its previous level of P1 billion, would go a long way in boosting our branding campaign that will be at par with those of our Asian neighbors,” Tourism Secretary WandaTeo said Friday.
Foreign tourist arrivals from January to June 2017 rose 12.7 percent to 3.6 million from nearly 3 million year-on-year.
Lawmakers gave their vote of confidence to Teo to mount an “all-out promotion campaign,” after she reported another double-digit increase in international visitor arrivals in the first semester
South Korea remained the top tourist market for the country, posting 795,085 arrivals, or 23.7 percent of the total inbound traffic; followed by the United States with 513,443 or 15.29 percent; China, 454,962 or 13.55 percent; and Japan, 294,080, or 8.76 percent.