International visitor arrivals surged 17.6 percent in June from a year ago, in line with the government’s target to attract 6.5 million foreign tourists this year and 12 million by 2022.
Data from the Tourism Department showed 459,138 tourists entered the country in June, up from 390,486 a year ago.
“The month of June recorded the second highest growth for 2016 next to February [20.42 percent]. It can be noted that this is the first time that this month surpassed the 400,000 visitor volume,” the department said.
ThE figure brought total arrivals in the first six months to 2.98 million, up 13.7 percent from 2.62 million a year earlier.
Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon Tulfo-Teo said the growth in arrivals was expected to be sustained over the next six years. She said tourism receipts would grow by as much as 40 percent to P3.9 trillion by 2022 from P2.8 trillion in 2015 while tourism’s contribution would hit 10 percent of gross domestic product by the end of the Duterte administration.
“We must shoot for the stars and maintain an upward trend in terms of visitor arrivals and revenues, for the benefit of all stakeholders,” Teo said Thursday.
She said the Tourism Department was now focused on developing a highly-competitive tourism industry and an inclusive and sustainable growth.
Teo said the Philippines continued to lag behind Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and even Vietnam in terms of visitor arrivals as of 2015, despite the many world-class attractions the country has to offer.
International tourist arrivals generated P127.37 billion in revenues in the first six months of 2016, or 14.7 percent higher than P111.05 billion generated in the same period in 2015.
The double-digit gain in tourism income resulted from the average daily expenditure of P5,179.86 per visitor and an average length of stay of 9.56 nights.
Top sources of visitors in the first half of the year were Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Australia.
Among the top 12 markets, China posted the highest growth of 79.2 percent year-on-year in the first half, followed by Taiwan with a 31.3-percent increase.
The Philippines recorded 5.36 million tourist arrivals in 2015, up by 11.7 percent from 4.8 million in 2014. The department set a target of 6.5 million tourist arrivals this year and 22 million by 2022.
Meanwhile, domestic tourism , on the other hand, is projected to grow from 68 million in 2015 to 89 million in 2022.
