Saturday, May 24, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
TOURIST arrivals last month rose in the single-digits, the Department of Tourism said.
In a statement, the agency said tourist arrivals in April reached 253,869, or 4.3 percent higher than the 243,441 for the same month last year. The April figure led the four-month total to reach 1,112,113, for a 7.5-percent increase over last year’s 1,034,329.
The department said the US market contributed the biggest share, topping the list of travel markets for the month in review as it accounted for 18.5 percent of the total or 47,013 arrivals.
Travelers from Korea comprised the second biggest group numbering 45,382 for a share of 17.9 percent. This market grew by 9.7 percent year-on-year.
The Japanese market was the third biggest source of arrivals with 29,295 comprising 11.5 percent of the total inbound traffic followed by China with 13,845, and Australia with 9,904.
Tourist count from the Scandinavian market continued to post substantial growth with Norway increasing by 13.3 percent, Ireland with 6.9 percent, Sweden with 5.4 percent and Denmark by 5.2 percent.
Other fast growing European markets also showed gains such as Russia with 32.8 percent, Italy with 22.2 percent and Spain with 12 percent.
During the first four months, 11 cruise ships arrived with seven ships disembarking in Manila with a total of 8,197 visitors while the remaining cruise liners had ports of call in Subic, Cebu and Davao with total visitors of 1,321.
Tourist spending amounted to $ 1.34 billion for the period. -- Darwin G. Amojelar
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