Tourist arrivals up 7.6%

Who’s afraid of kidnapping and bombing in the Philippines?

Definitely not the Americans and other foreign tourists who keep visiting the country despite reports of bomb threats and kidnappings.

Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano said the country recorded a 7.6 percent growth in international arrivals in the first half of the year compared to last year’s figure, with Americans leading the arrivals.

From 1.42 million last year, Durano said, the number of foreign tourists who visited the country rose to a record high 1.5 million in the first half of the year.

For the month of June alone, the volume of international visitor arrivals reached a total of 250,227 or more than 24,000 than the 225,623 foreign tourists last year.

Data from the DOT’s Research and Statistics Division also showed that the United States regained its place as the leading market with a total of 314,336 visitors from January to June.

Korea closely followed with 312,318 nationals visiting the country and Japan with 197,095 guests.

Other leading visitors came from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore, Canada, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Germany.

With the current trend, Durano expressed confidence that the country would able to reach the target 3.1 million foreign visitors by the end of the year.