Koreans Flock To RP In January

Foreign Tourist Arrivals Up By 1.4

Foreign tourists lining to board their pumpboat in Caticlan for Boracay Island, most of them are Koreans.

A total of 70,733 Koreans visited the country in January this year which made them the biggest group of foreign tourists who came to the Philippines that month, said Tourism Secretary Ace Durano.
In his report of visitor arrivals to the Philippines, Durano
noted that the total foreign tourist arrivals increased by 1.4 percent from 268,818 in January 2006 to 272,525 in January 2007.
A total of 12,441 or 17 percent more overseas Filipinos, or Philippine passport holders who permanently reside abroad excluding overseas Filipino workers, visited their home country, compared to only 10,629 in January last year, Durano reported.
After Korea, tourists from the following countries made up the next top 11 sources of visitors to the Philippines: the United States of America, which had 55,632 tourists; Japan, 34,947; China, 9,917; Canada, 9,812; Australia, 9,414; Taiwan, 8,419; Hong Kong, 6.709; Singapore, 6,691; United Kingdom, 6,175; Germany, 4,978; and Malaysia, 4,723.
The yearend report of the Department of Tourism (DOT) said that despite the natural calamities that affected the country in 2006 and with various travel advisories issued by the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom discouraging travel to the Philippines, international visitors grew by 8.4 percent, breaking through a new record of 2.84 million.
The Philippines seeks to post a steady 10 percent increase in tourist arrivals every year. The DOT reported that over the past three years from 2004 to 2006, visitor arrivals to the Philippines grew at an average of 14 percent per year which is more than the growth rates registered by ASEAN countries and surpassing the projected seven (7) percent increase of tourist traffic in the Asia-Pacific region by the United Nations World Tourism Organization. (By Veronica Uy) /MP