MANILA, 8 January 2024: The Philippines Department of Tourism has set the 2024 tourist arrival target at 7.7 million international visitors, about 500,000 short of the country’s pre-pandemic count of 8.2 million.
The Philippines News Agency quoted Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco saying: “As we look ahead to 2024, our commitment to the transformation of Philippine tourism is unwavering. Guided by our National Tourism Development Plan 2023-2028, we are poised for a thriving tourism landscape, evident in surpassing our targets in international and domestic arrivals and receipts, fostering economic prosperity and further job creation for our people”.
Earlier, the DOT confirmed the country welcomed 5,450,557 international visitors in 2023, surpassing the 4.8 million target set by the Philippines’ Department of Tourism (DOT) for the entire year.
The DOT report confirmed that 91.80% or 5,003,475 visitors were foreigners, while the remaining 447,082 were overseas Filipinos visiting the homeland.
During 2023, the country generated an estimated PHP482.54 billion in international tourism revenue, more than double the receipts it recorded in 2022.
More than a quarter (1,439,336 visitors) came from South Korea, the traditional top source market for international visitors.
The US followed with 903,299 tourists (16.57%). Japan supplied 305,580 (5.61%), Australia supplied 266,551 (4.89%), and China supplied 263,836 (4.84%).
Frasco said the 2023 visitor receipts also show that the tourism industry is “recovering faster than expected.”
The country’s 2023 international tourism receipts grew by 124.87% compared with the PHP214.58 billion estimated visitor receipts from 2022. Before the pandemic in 2019, the DOT recorded PHP482.15 billion in international tourism receipts.
(Source: PNA)
