Phl generates P126.3-B tourism receipts in 7 mos

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines generated P126.3 billion tourism receipts in the first seven months of 2014, with Korean visitors emerging as the biggest spenders.

Data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) indicate that the average daily spending of foreign tourists stand at P4,167 during the seven month period.

Korean tourists spent P33.89 billion or slightly more than a quarter of the total spending in the period, followed by visitors from the United States spending a total of P25.57 billion.

The Korean market also recorded the biggest arrivals, accounting for 662,228 visitors on a share of 23.14 percent of total visitor traffic.

Visitors from Australia spent P8.34 billion, while Japanese and Chinese tourists spent P6.3 billion and P5.48 billion, respectively.

Substantial spending also came from Canadian visitors (P4.95 billion), the United Kingdom (P4.91 billion), Germany (P2.80 billion), Singapore (P2.44 billion) and Malaysia  (P2.13 billion).

At the end of July, tourists were staying in the Philippines an average of 9.63 nights, or 1.36 nights more compared to the first seven months of 2013.

Overall, tourist arrivals reached 2,861,572 or 2.24 percent higher than the arrivals in the same period last year.

The largest arrivals came from the East Asian region with 1,343,864 or 46.96 percent of overall foreign tourist traffic. The region includes Korea, Japan, China, Singapore and Malaysia.

Tourists from the US reached 537,597, making it the second biggest arrivals in  the country. This region constituted 18.79 percent of the total visitor volume.

The Asean region shared 9.37 percent or 268,181 arrivals to total visitor volume. It experienced an increase of 10.5 percent vis-à-vis its arrivals of 242,698 to supply the third biggest arrivals by region.

Australia/Pacific provided 163,811 arrivals to constitute the fourth biggest arrivals by region.  This group experienced a growth of 5.72 percent from its year-ago arrivals of 154,951.

Visitors from Northern Europe were up by 9.51 percent as arrivals reached 126,874 compared to its contribution of 115,861 arrivals the previous year.

After the Korean market, the US market came in with  the second largest arrivals reaching 449,793.

Visitors from China reached 268,028, followed by the Japanese in fourth place providing 259,086 arrivals for a share of 9.05 percent to the total volume. It recorded an increase of 5.40 percent compared to its arrivals of 245,817 in 2013.

Completing the top 12 markets are Singapore with 105,333 arrivals, Canada with 86,225 arrivals, Taiwan with 82,787 arrivals, United Kingdom with 81,248 arrivals, Malaysia with 78,149 arrivals, Hong Kong with 67,034 arrivals, and Germany with 43,559 arrivals.

Noteworthy, though,  is the double-digit growth of visitors from Vietnam, Italy and New Zealand.

Other emerging markets with substantial growth are: Spain (up 9.61 percent) with 10,482 arrivals; India (up 8.91 percent) with 34,853 arrivals; Netherlands (up 8.87 percent) with 14,624 arrivals, and Denmark (up 7.87 percent) with 9,183 arrivals.

The tourism sector accounts for roughly six percent of gross domestic product (GDP).