By MST Business | Dec. 15, 2014 at
11:10pm [ manilastandardtoday.com ]
International visitor arrivals rose
2.5 percent to 3.6 million in the first nine months from 3.5 million a year ago
and generated P158 billion worth of tourism receipts for the country, according
to the Tourism Department.
“The mega fam [familiarization] trips,
marketing efforts and participation to international travel fairs, as well as,
tourism infrastructure development help boosted arrivals to the country,” the
department said in a statement.
The agency said January registered the
biggest arrivals of 461,383 while the highest growth of 6.27 percent was
recorded in August.
East Asia continued to be the biggest
source of arrivals, accounting for 48.6 percent or 1.75 million visitors in the
nine-month period. Korea was the biggest
contributor of arrivals at 865,950 while Japan posted the highest growth rate
of 6.1 percent.
North America was the second largest
group in terms of arrivals contributing 639,440 arrivals, or 17.8 percent of
the total and recording an 8.2 percent from a year ago.
Asean recorded the third biggest
arrivals of 337,392, or 9.4 percent of the total visitor volume with an output
increase of 9 percent year-on-year.
Visitors from Australasia/Pacific
constituted 5.6 percent of the total inbound traffic with 202,328 arrivals, or
4.45 percent higher than the 193,704 arrivals the previous year. Inbound travelers from Northern Europe
increased 9.04 percent to 150,910 arrivals.
The Tourism Department said arrivals
from South Korea hit 865,950 or 24.1 percent of the total. Outbound travelers from the US increased 7.8
percent to 536,385 while arrivals from Japan grew 6.1 percent to 349,100
arrivals
Visitors from China recorded 334,672
arrivals, comprising 9.31 percent and up 2.3 percent from a year ago. Completing the top five visitor market is
Australia which provided 156,789 visitors in the nine-month period.
The agency said some P157.73 billion
was generated from inbound tourists in the January-September period. The top five visitor markets in terms of
expenditure are Korea (P45.08 billion), the United States (P30.86 billion),
Australia (P9.99 billion), Japan (P8.27 billion) and China (P7.08 billion).
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