Koreans again lead Philippines top tourists

MANILA, Philippines — South Koreans remained the country’s top tourists as the Department of Tourism (DOT) welcomed one of four batches in Cebu on Friday.

Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco said the South Koreans have “reclaimed the number one spot in terms of tourist arrivals to the Philippines.”

Three hundred South Korean tourists – one of the four batches scheduled to visit the country – arrived at the Mactan Cebu International Airport and were greeted with leis, a rondalla band and a group of Sinulog dancers.

According to a DOT statement, the newly arrived tourists are agents, sellers and distributors of a direct selling company in South Korea.

Their travel to the Philippines was an incentive given by their company, Unicity, for top-performing employees, the statement added.

South Koreans, according to DOT data as of March 27, are the country’s top tourists with 348,384 arrivals. This comprises 26.14 percent of the total 1,332,855 foreign travelers.

A majority of foreign tourists who came to the Philippines in 2019 – before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced travel bans – were also South Koreans with 1,989,322 or 24.08 percent of the total 8,260,913 tourists.

Frasco said South Koreans were “coming on a daily basis,” with a majority of them visiting popular tourist destinations like Cebu, Bohol and Palawan.

She added the DOT, through its office in South Korea, would try to encourage more South Koreans to visit the country by engaging with the industry through MICE or meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions.

The agency is also engaging the South Koreans through business-to-business events.