Department of Tourism reported that the Philippines tourist arrival surpassed the average tourism growth of 6 percent. The tourism growth of the Philippines in 2018 outpaced world’s average tourism and average growth of Asia and Pacific.
“Philippines tourist arrival increased by 7.65 percent despite of Boracay’s six month closure,” DOT said. Moreover, the agency cited data from United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) World Tourism Barometer.
Tourism Sec. Berna Romulo-Puyat said that the closure of Boracay enabled other tourist destinations in the Philippines to be appreciated.
As cited in the report of the Department of Tourism, Puyat said that “the challenging act of closing down Boracay- a flagship destination, the country’s top sun-and-beach destination has evidently become a blessing in disguise for secondary tourism spots to have a share of the lime light and attention they truly deserve”.
On the other, the report also shown the top 5 countries where tourists mostly came from. First on the list is South Korea with 1.58 million arrivals. Second, China take the spot with 1.25 million tourists, a growth of 29.62 percent relative to its 2017 Chinese tourists in the country.
USA, as the top 3, obtain 1.03 million citizens visited Philippines. Followed by Japan with 631,801 arrivals, and lastly, Australia with 279,821 visitors.
Significantly, December and January identified months which most foreign tourists arrived in the Philippines.
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