MANILA, 29 April 2024: The Department of Tourism (DOT) reports that the Philippines welcomed 2 million international visitors from 1 January to 24 April, and tourism revenue for the first three months was close to PHP158 million.
Tourism receipts for Q1, 2024 reached PHP157.62 billion, which translates to an estimated 120.70% recovery rate from the PHP130.59 billion revenue gained from the same period in 2019 or the milestone year for Philippine tourism before the global lockdowns.
Based on the Department’s tourist arrival data from 1 January to 24 April 2024, the country welcomed 2,010,522 international visitors. Of these, 94.21%, or 1,894,076, were international visitors and 5.79%, or 116,446, were overseas Filipinos. This is 15.11% higher than the international arrivals recorded in the same period last year, pegged at 1,746,630.
South Korea maintains its spot as the Philippines’ top source market in terms of inbound visitor arrivals, with 27.19% or 546,726, followed by the US, which delivered 315,816 (15.71%), China, with 130,574 (6.49%), Japan, with 123,204 (6.13%), and Australia, with 88,048 (4.38%). Canada, Taiwan, the UK, Singapore, and Germany ranked sixth to 10th, respectively.
“The Department of Tourism sees a positive trajectory for the country’s international tourist arrivals this year. We are glad that the collaboration, collective effort, and hard work are materialising into figures that benefit the entire industry,” Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said. We are hopeful that with more investments in tourism infrastructure, a much-needed increase in connectivity, and improvements in air, land, and sea infrastructure and accessibility, the numbers can further increase.”
This year, the country is targeting 7.7 million international visitors, almost reaching the pre-pandemic record-breaking achievement in 2019 that closed with an estimated 8.26 million inbound visitor arrivals.
“Guided by the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) 2023-2028, we are confident that we will reach our industry goals not only in terms of attracting visitors to the country but also, ultimately, giving more employment to Filipinos. We are also grateful to our partners from the public and private sectors for continuously helping the DOT realise its goals towards sustainable tourism development,” the tourism chief concluded.
