April arrivals surpass 2 million mark

THE Philippines had more than two million international visitors this month, the Department of Tourism (DoT) reported on Thursday.

Tourism revenues from January 1 to March 31 this year totaled about P157.62 billion, up 120.70 percent from the P130.59 billion earned during the same period in 2019, which was the milestone year for Philippine tourism before the Covid-19 lockdowns almost crippled the sector.

There were 2,010,522 arrivals as of April 24, with foreign tourists accounting for 94.21 percent (1,894,076), and overseas Filipinos accounted for 5.79 percent (1,116,446), the department said.

The figure is 15.11 percent higher than the 1,746,630 international arrivals during the same time last year.

South Korea still led the number of arrivals with 546,726, or 27.19 percent. The United States came in second with 315,816 (15.71 percent), followed by China with 130,574 (6.49 percent), Japan with 123,204 (6.13 percent) and Australia with 88,048 (4.38 percent).

Canada, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Germany placed sixth to tenth, consecutively.

Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said the DoT “sees a positive trajectory for the country’s international tourist arrivals this year, and we are glad that the collaboration, collective effort, and hard work are materializing into figures that are beneficial for the entire industry.”

“We are hopeful that with more investments in tourism infrastructure as well as a muchneeded increase in connectivity and improvements in air, land, and sea infrastructure and accessibility, the numbers can further increase,” Frasco added.