DOT: International tourist arrivals surpass 5-M mark

MANILA, Philippines— The Department of Tourism reported that the international tourist arrivals in the Philippines breached the five-million mark in August.

The DOT recorded a total of 5,554,950 foreign tourist arrivals from January to August this year.

The number of inbound foreign guests was a 14.08-percent increase from the 4,869,417 tourists in the same period last year.

Data from the DOT Office of Tourism Planning, Research and Information Management showed that for August alone, a total of 702,843 visitors arrived in the country.

The August record is 27.54-percent higher than the 551,088 guests in the same month in 2018.

The DOT is pleased with the arrival growth as it is closer to its target of 8.2 million foreign tourist arrivals for 2019.

The Tourism department recorded more than 4.1 million foreign tourists for the first half of 2019.

READ: DOT: More than 4M tourists visited the Philippines from January to June

South Korea remains the top source of tourists, with 185,334 visitors from there in August, followed by China which registered 170,903 visitors on the same month.

Meanwhile, Japan overtook the United States with 78,699 and 68,418 recorded tourists in the same period, respectively.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said she is encouraged by the tourist arrival growth and expressed appreciation for the support of tourism industry stakeholders in the private sectors as well as the local government units in the implementation of the government’s sustainable development program.

“The convergence approach of the DOT with other government agencies and its partners in the industry is proving effective in expanding travel connectivity while inviting more tourists to come and visit through more enticing tourism products and packages,” Puyat said.