Tourist arrivals up, DOT says

The number of foreign tourists visiting the country is nearing a record one million and is expected to breach the 2.5-million mark before the end of the year, the Department of Tourism (DOT) reported yesterday.

Tourism Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan said he is confident that international arrivals would hit the one-million mark this month as the government steps up its marketing drive to lure tourists from Asia.

Based on data from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), tourist arrivals from January to May have reached 946,440, or 31.4 percent more than last year’s total of 720,518 for the same period.

Pagdanganan said records from the DOT statistics office showed that the number of foreigners arriving in the country in April posted a 53.1 percent increase over the 192,203 arrivals during the same period last year.

The top five tourist arrivals were from the United States with 44,074; Japan, 31,669; Korea, 26.749; Hong Kong, 15,396; and Taiwan, 9,052.

Pagdanganan said that all of the country’s travel markets posted increases last month over the figures for April 2003, when the region was in the middle of the SARS scare.

He added that the combined arrivals from airports and seaports in Manila and Cebu increased by 51.3 percent compared to last year. An overwhelming 98.7 percent of the visitors arrived by air.

Pagdanganan vowed to bring up the issue of negative travel advisories against Asian countries during the scheduled World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Vietnam this weekend.

Pagdanganan said he would ask for the support of member nations in calling for the issuance of more accurate and fair travel advisories to further boost the tourism industry in the Asia-Pacific region.