PHILIPPINES: PHL Tourism Nears 5.5 m Visit Arrival Target

The Philippine Department of Tourism’s (DOT) 5.5-million global visitor arrival target for 2015 is within sight, said Stalingrad F. Samson, spokesperson of DOT’s market development group, noting that the country already had more than four million tourists in September.

“We are experiencing a good growth rate. In September, we were over four million already, ” Samson told The Filipino Times, adding that the peak holiday period of 2015’s last quarter would suffice to bring in the remaining numbers.

Meantime, inbound tourism traffic from the Middle East, Samson said, has steadily been increasing from 46,811 in 2009 to 76,163 last year with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia accounting for the bulk at 43,483 visitors, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 17,000.

“Saudi tourists are one of the biggest spenders among our tourist markets,” Samson said. There were 19,101 visitors from KSA in 2009. The figure has grown to 22,244 in 2010; 27,945 in 2011; 30,040 in 2012; and 38,969 in 2013.

Tourism arrivals to the Philippines from the region was at 48,716 in 2010 and 55,826 in 2011. There were 57,275 Middle East visitors in 2012, and 68,916 in 2013.