The country established itself more strongly as a destination among foreign tourists in 2013, according to statistics released by the Department of Tourism (DOT) , in spite of the calamities that ravaged the country last year.
The DOT estimated that 3,867,386 million tourists visited the Philippines from January to October last year, representing an 11.19 per cent increase over visitor statistics for the same period in 2012.
The biggest percentage of visits is accounted for by tourists from South Korea, the United States and China.
The figure implies that the DOT target of 5.5 million tourist arrivals for the year may be difficult to achieve, in the light of the calamities that struck the country in the final months of 2013.
Other countries from which significant number of visitors originated are: Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
The estimates also revealed that the peak months in tourist inflow are January and February.
DOT Undersecretary Daniel said in October last year that the agency was working to reverse the 33-percent drop in Taiwanese tourist arrivals from January to August this year. The decline is a perceived effect of the May shooting incident between the Philippine Coast Guard and a Taiwanese fisherman who was eventually killed. The incident prompted the Taiwanese government to impose sanctions against the Philippines.
Photo: ““It’s more fun in the Philippines” inside a Seoul subway station… #misadventures #troublemaker #subway #mjwasia” by , c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved