Despite fears on the outbreak of U.S. war against Iraq and reports on terrorism, the country’s tourist arrivals continue to grow marking a double-digit increase of 13.2 percent for the month of January 2003. This was according to the Department of Tourism (DoT) Research and Statistics Office report.
The increase was the difference of the 175,728 tourist arrivals in January 2003 compared to 155,294 visitors in January 2002 wherein it yielded a 7.1 percent negative growth rate.
More Americans still visited the country in spite of the U.S. threat to launch war in Iraq, making it the highest contributor of tourists in January 2003 with 36,852, which is slightly higher than last year’s 33,521.
The Korean market ranked second in tourist arrivals with 32,782 followed by Japan, 30,762; Hong Kong, 10,666 and Taiwan with 8,727.
In terms of growth rate, the Chinese market obtained the highest increase in January with 33.3 percent. The upsurge was brought about by the large groups of Chinese who celebrated Chinese New Year with their relatives here.
Likewise, more Chinese came to the country to experience the Wealth of Wonder (WOW) tour packages, specifically the “More Than The Usual” shopping tour packages offered during the Grand Fiesta Sale as part of the Visit Philippines 2003 celebrations.
Meanwhile, homecoming visits of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) soared to 7,774 in January 2003 as compared to 3,470 for the same period last year. The increase was the result of DoT Secretary Richard Gordon’s intensified promotional campaign of Visit Philippines 2003 during his roadshow and sales missions in the U.S., Europe and Asia last year.
Gordon said, “The arrival of the big volume of OFWs last month showed the Filipino’s support to Visit Philippines 2003 campaign.”
He is also optimistic to reach the 2.4 million tourist arrivals target for this year.
The same report also showed tourist arrivals soared last year during the months of May with 10.4 percent growth rate; June, 10.0 percent; July, 10.6 percent; September, 15.2 percent; October, 36.3 percent; November, 22.7 percent; and December, 14.9 percent.
|
