PH logs 5.4M int'l visitors in 2023 – tourism chief

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 2) — The Philippines recorded around 5.45 million international visitors from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 last year, exceeding the Department of Tourism's (DOT) 4.8 million projection for 2023, DOT Secretary Christina Frasco said Tuesday.

In a news release, Frasco said DOT's monitoring showed a total of 5,450,557 international arrivals, of which 91.80% were foreigners, while the remaining 8.20% or 447,082 were overseas Filipinos.

Frasco said the figure, which is around 650,000 higher than the 4.8 million year-end target, translated to ₱480 billion in international tourism receipts.

«These numbers speak very well of the performance of the tourism industry under the Marcos Administration,» the tourism chief said.

«We assure the President, including our partners from the public and private sectors, that we will continue to realize the vision of this administration to make tourism a catalyst for economic growth and resurgence,» she added.

According to the agency, the country's main source of international visitors in 2023 was South Korea, representing 26.41% or around 1.4 million tourists; followed by the United States (16.57%), Japan (5.61%), Australia (4.89%), and China (4.84%).

Others were Canada, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Malaysia.

While international arrivals doubled from the 2.65 million recorded in 2022, the figure was still below the record 8.26 million international visitors in 2019, a pre-pandemic year.

The DOT has set its 2024 goal of 7.7 million foreign tourist arrivals in the country by year-end.

For 2024, Frasco said there will be 18 more rest areas for tourists set to be built across the country.

She added the department is also eyeing to launch four hubs in Metro Manila for the Hop-On Hop-Off (HOHO) Travel by The Hubs project next year. The agency rolled out the bus tours in Manila and Makati in 2023.