December 18, 2024 | 12:03am
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has welcomed nearly 5.65 million international visitors as of Tuesday, December 17, Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco announced during the Department of Tourism’s yearend briefing.
In total, the country recorded 5,646,351 international tourist arrivals since the start of the year, still falling short of its target of 7.7 million for 2024. Of these, 91.66% or 5,175,599 were from foreign tourists, while 8.34% or 470,752 were from overseas Filipinos.
“We have continued to warmly welcome visitors from around the world to our archipelago of over 7600 islands. As of today, the Philippines has welcomed close to 5.65 million international visitors. South Korea remains our top source market, followed by the United States, Japan and various other nations,” Frasco said.
Here are the top 10 source markets as well as their percentage shares in the tourist arrival figures:
- South Korea – 1,505,251 (26.66%)
- USA – 889,489 (15.75%)
- Japan – 367,747 (6.51%)
- China – 306,549 (5.43%)
- Australia – 249,130 (4.41%)
- Canada – 210,986 (3.74%)
- Taiwan – 203,428 (3.60%)
- Singapore – 152,008 (2.69%)
- United Kingdom – 150,550 (2.67%)
- Malaysia – 93,236 (1.65%)
Challenges and projections. On Thursday, December 12, Leechiu Property Consultants released a report projecting 6 million international arrivals for the Philippines in 2024, falling short of the DOT’s 7.7 million target. It, however, projected 9.5% annual growth rate that could bring the country back to pre-pandemic levels of 8.2 million arrivals by 2027.
“The decline in Chinese tourist arrivals, from 1 million in 2019 to fewer than 244,000 in 2024, remains a significant challenge, and other source markets have yet to fully compensate for this shortfall,” it said.
When asked if the Philippines would revise its target or remain committed to achieving it, Frasco said the DOT is considering various factors that have impacted projections, including visa liberalization delays and geopolitical issues.
Frasco said the Philippines had anticipated welcoming 2 million Chinese visitors with the implementation of an electronic visa system. However, this initiative was suspended by the Department of Foreign Affairs, slowing inbound travel from China. She expressed hope that visa liberalization efforts would soon be expedited.
Despite challenges in meeting arrival targets, Frasco emphasized a shift toward prioritizing “quality over quantity” in tourism metrics by focusing on visitor receipts, spending patterns, length of stay, and tourism-driven employment.
“In a post-pandemic world, and knowing what we know now about the importance of quality and sustainability, we have graduated from measuring tourism merely on the number of people arriving, but rather on the more important numbers, how much are tourists spending in the Philippines? How long are they staying? Are they coming back again and again? The answers to these questions place the Philippines above and beyond its competitors,” Frasco said.
Economic impact. The tourism chief also said “the Philippines is doing exceptionally well” as it generated P712 billion in tourism receipts from January to December 15 this year—a 119% recovery rate from pre-COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.
According to the 2024 tourism report, tourists are staying longer in the Philippines. Compared to the average of nine nights in 2019, tourists are now staying an average of over 11 nights in the country, and over 70% of tourists coming to the country are repeat visitors. Their expenditure per arrival amounts to USD $2,073.
“Truly our tourists have come to love the Philippines,” she said.
Frasco expressed optimism that tourism receipts for this year would surpass ?697 billion—higher than the ?600 billion recorded in 2019—despite falling short on arrival numbers.
“We are being pragmatic in the projections. And so we view that while we may not be able to reach the 7.7 million by the end of the year, we will certainly overcome the number P697 billion in tourism receipts. And this number, to my mind, is far more important, considering that it is the visitor receipts that give jobs to our fellow Filipinos, that supports local tourism businesses and will ultimately sustain tourism livelihood in the Philippines,” she said.
Last year, the Philippines logged a total of 5,450,557 visitor arrivals and visitor spending of P482.54 billion—a significant improvement as tourism continues its recovery trajectory post-pandemic.
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