Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 12) — The Department of Tourism (DOT) seeks to bring in 7.7 million international tourist arrivals in the country in 2024, building on the sector’s growth this year.
DOT Secretary Christina Frasco revealed on Tuesday the Philippines has breached its 4.8 million target for international tourist arrivals for this year.
During her speech, she said the country recorded 5,069,752 international tourist arrivals as of December 12, 2023. Of this number, 4,658,123 or 91.88 % are foreign tourists, while the remaining 411,629 or 8.12 % are overseas Filipinos.
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The DOT said this translates to nearly ₱440 billion in foreign visitor receipts.
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The tourism chief is optimistic the number of arrivals and revenues will continue to grow with the expected travel rush this holiday season.
“We’re hopeful with the holiday rush, yung bumabalik natin na mga balikbayan, pati narin po yung international arrivals is mas tataas pa ng a little over five million yung international arrivals natin for this year,” Frasco said.
[Translation: We’re hopeful that with the holiday rush, Filipinos coming back to the country as well as international arrivals will go over five million this year.]
“We’re hopeful we can breach the ₱440 billion mark next year for international receipts since we have shown we are capable of doing that having breached the target next year,” she added.
Data from the DOT shows, South Korea (1,341,029) remains the top source market for the Philippines, followed by the US (836,694), Japan (285,655), China (252,171), and Australia (238,487).The DOT also reported over 5.35 million tourism-related jobs were generated in 2022. There were also 13,799 DOT-accredited tourism enterprises and frontliners as of November 2023.
The tourism chief said the numerous accolades received by the country this year is proof there is a growing demand and interest in Philippine tourist destinations.
“The world has loved the Philippines in 2023 and we’re very grateful to our friends from all over the world that have affirmed na yung Pilipinas ay nagpapatuloy bilang [continues to be the] world’s leading beach and dive destination, Asia’s best cruise destination, pati na rin po nag-iisa lang ang Pilipinas [The Philippines is] among five countries in the world awarded as a global resilience awardee,” Frasco said.
