International visitor arrivals grew 20 percent in February from a year ago, the highest growth rate in the tourism sector under the Aquino administration, the Tourism Department said Monday.
Data showed visitor arrivals in February hit 549,725, up 20.4 percent from 2015. This was faster than the 13.2-percent rise in arrivals in January with 542,258 visitors.
The Tourism Department said the February figures were the highest growth rate and the biggest volume of visitor arrivals in 62 months.
“The biggest change during this administration is that we now have the Filipino people more enthusiastic about tourism itself. And the growth that we see today is precisely the result of our people’s renewed confidence,” said Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr.
“We, as a country, believe that we can deliver an experience to tourists that is more fun because we allow visitors to take part in our joy. And the whole world is as convinced that more people should visit and revisit the Philippines,” Jimenez said.
Arrivals in the first two months reached 1.092 million, up by 16.7 percent from the same period last year.
East Asia was the biggest source of arrivals with 565,971, constituting more than half of the total visitor volume.
South Korea continued to supply the biggest arrivals to the country with a total of 284,763 arrivals. This market accounted for 26.08 percent of the total arrivals.
Except for Hong Kong, all countries from the East Asian markets posted increases, with China reflecting the biggest growth of 107.88 percent.
Visitors from China reached 130,916 in the first two months, up from 62,976 in the same period in 2015. China ranked third among sources of foreign visitors.
Another high-growth market was Taiwan which posted an increase of 30.89 percent.
The United States was the second largest visitor-generating market with 155,796 visitors, constituting 14.27 percent of the total and recording a 9.54 percent increase from 142,226 in the same period of 2015.
Japan ranked fourth with 92,531 visitors, comprising 8.47 percent of the total inbound traffic.
The fifth major market was Australia with 43,712 arrivals, comprising 4 percent of the total. Other major markets were Canada with 36,773 arrivals, Taiwan with 35,344, Singapore with 28,376, the United Kingdom with 28,238 and Malaysia with 23,990.
Countries which also posted substantial growth in inbound traffic to the Philippines in January and February were France with 12,502, Spain with 5,092, Sweden with 7,073, Indonesia with 8,824, Switzerland with 6,494, the Netherlands with 6,049 and New Zealand with 3,294 arrivals.
Tourism activities in February generated P27.49 billion in earnings, or 42.1 percent higher than P19.35 billion in February 2015.
Korea remained to the top spending market during the month with receipts amounting to P12.92 billion. The US ranked second with an aggregate visitor spending of P2.87 billion. China rose to the third place with expenditure totaling P1.71 billion followed by Japan with P1.45 billion.