Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 12) — More than 4 million foreign tourists visited the country in the first six months of 2019, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said Monday, reaching half of the agency’s target for the whole year.
In a statement, the DOT said a total of 4,133,050 foreign tourists visited the Philippines from January to June. This is 11.43 percent higher than the same period in 2018.
In June alone, 643,780 foreign tourists visited the country–21.41 percent higher than the same month last year.
With this, the agency is already halfway in achieving its target of 8.2 million tourist arrivals this year.
READ: DOT keeps ‘It’s More Fun In The Philippines’ campaign, eyes 8.2M tourist arrivals in 2019
The agency said South Korea is still the country’s top foreign tourist market during the six-month period, followed by China, United States, Japan, and Taiwan.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat attributed the increase to “better and increased connectivity” as well as “new, rehabilitated and expanded airports.”
“By expanding our portfolio of tourism products and by developing and promoting our lesser-known but emerging destinations, we have attracted a large yet diverse set of foreign travelers and have sustained our growth in the highly-competitive South East Asian region,” Puyat said.
The secretary said they expect more travelers from the US to visit the Philippines in the coming months after the US Homeland Security lifted its public notice on security issues at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
