Tourist arrivals up 2.2% in 6 mos

MANILA, Philippines - Foreign arrivals grew 2.22 percent to 2.43 million in the first six months of 2014, with the Asian visitors outnumbering their “Western” counterparts,  data from the Department of Tourism showed.

Arrivals in June alone reached 372,293 or 0.87 percent more than the 369,073 in the same period last year.

Tourist arrivals from the Asian region accounted for 58.78 percent, with South Korea, China and Japan leading the region. The Americas and Europe comprised 19.28 percent and 10.64 percent, respectively.

By sub-region, significant growths were achieved by ASEAN with an increase of 11.21 percent, Southern Europe with 13.35 percent, and Eastern Mediterranean Europe with 13.58 percent.

South Korea remained the top source of international visitors with 547,971 arrivals comprising 22.52-percent share to total inbound traffic.  The US market grew 6.84 percent, and supplied the second largest influx of arrivals with 389,432 visitors, thus constituting 16 percent of the total inbound traffic.

Growing by a rate of 13.56 percent, the Chinese market provided a total 226,163 visitors with a share of 9.29 percent.

Japan grew at a 5.03 percent rate, ranked fourth overall with 220,366 visitors, and constituting 9.06 percent market share.

Australia was fifth with 111,687 arrivals, encouraging 8.13 percent increase vis-à-vis its arrivals of 103,286 last year.

Rounding up the top 10 visitor markets are Singapore (+6.26 percent) with 91,692 arrivals, Canada (+10.59 percent) with 75,677 arrivals, United Kingdom (+13.88 percent) with 68,593 arrivals, Taiwan (-21.91 percent) with 67,213 arrivals, and Malaysia (+23.34 percent) with 66,796 arrivals.

Other emerging markets with substantial growth were Italy (+17.16 percent) with 10,154 arrivals, Vietnam (+16.13 percent) with 15,321 arrivals, New Zealand (+13.79 percent ) with 8,352 arrivals, Denmark (+10.48 percent ) with 7,950 arrivals, Spain (+8.88 percent) with 8,655 arrivals, Netherlands (+8.48 percent) with 11,929 arrivals, India (+6.60 percent) with 29,981 arrivals, and Switzerland (+6.33 percent) with 13,371 arrivals. Overseas Filipinos reported 106,088 arrivals.

In terms of expenditures, a total of P109.77 billion was generated from inbound tourists in the first six months.

The top five visitor markets are: Korea, (P29.11 billion), the United States (P22.64 billion), Australia (P7.38 billion), Japan (P5.48 billion), and China (P4.88 billion).

Other substantial visitor receipts are: Canada (P4.44 billion), United Kingdom (P4.11 billion), Germany (P2.52 billion), Singapore (P2.2 billion) and Malaysia  (P1.89 billion).

On the other hand, visitors spent an average daily expenditure of P4,874.70 in June 2014 alone, higher by 25.03 percent from the P3,898.95 visitor spending in June 2013.

Visitors in June 2014 stayed for an average of 11.49 nights, longer by one night (11.01 percent) compared to the average length of stay of 10.35 nights in June 2013.