FOREIGN TOURIST ARRIVALS IN THE COUNTRY UP BY 8.5%

South Koreans still top foreign tourists to RP - DOT

MANILA, Philippines- Foreign tourist arrivals in the first quarter of the year rose marginally from a year earlier, still led by visitors from South Korea, the Department of Tourism said Tuesday.

In a statement, the DOT said foreign tourist arrivals rose 8.5 percent to 858,244 in the first three months of 2008 from 790,888 visitors in the same period last year.

The agency said that for the period in review, the most number of foreign visitors came in during January (293,803) while the month of February registered the highest growth of 11.7 percent. The tourism agency said the Korean market still the top markets as it contributed the biggest arrivals of 175,147 during the first three months of the year.

The Korean market had a 20.4-percent share of total inbound traffic and registered a growth of 2 percent compared to 171,716 in 2007.

Visitors from the United States constituted the second biggest arrivals with 166,128, or 19.4 percent of total visitor volume. This market grew by 6.3 percent compared to its contribution of 156,226 a year ago.

The Japanese market came third with 99,453 or about 11.6 percent of the total inbound traffic. The Japanese market recorded a decline of 4 percent versus its corresponding arrivals of 103,589 for the same period in 2007.

Other top tourism market during the period were China with 48,619 visitors; Taiwan, 31,441 visitors; Hong Kong with 31,344 arrivals; Australia with 30,936 arrivals; Canada with 29,525 arrivals; United Kingdom with 23,863 arrivals and Singapore with 23,761 arrivals.

By: GMANews.TV