Tourism department misses target in 2012

THE Department of Tourism (DOT) has failed to meet the 4.6 million target tourist arrivals in 2012.

There were only 4,272,811 foreign tourists who went to the Philippines last year, 9.07 percent higher from the 3,917,454 tourists who came here in 2011, the DOT said.

The agency did not cite the reason why it failed to achieve its target of 4.6 million tourists, but the data showed that arrivals from China significantly declined, from a high of 42,868 in January last year to 17,360 in December. 

But comparing to 2011 volume of 243,137 arrivals, total tourist arrivals from China in 2012 "showed a moderate increase of 3.19 percent" to 250,883 visitors, the DOT said.

China was the fourth biggest source of arrivals last year, it added.

Relations between the Philippines and China have been affected by the territorial row. Manila has been claiming parts of the South China Sea, while Beijing says it owns practically the entire area.

Korea continues to be the country's largest visitor market with 1,031,155 arrivals, accounting for 24.13 percent share of the total visitor volume, the Tourism department said.

"The said market rose by 11.45 percent from its arrivals of 925,204 in 2011. Another record was achieved by the tourism industry as it is the first time that a source market of the Philippines reached its 1 millionth visitor," it added.

Record shows that all major markets of the country registered growth in arrivals, DOT said.    

Following the Korean market, the United States market constituted 15.27 percent of the total inbound traffic by producing 652,626 visitors to the Philippines. This figure is up by 4.50 percent from 624,527 in 2011.  

Japan which provided 412,474 visitors was the third biggest source of tourists in the country, followed by China.

Next to China was Taiwan registering 216,511 arrivals, followed by Australia with 191,150 tourists.

Other markets with substantial contribution to the overall visitor arrivals include Singapore with 148,215 arrivals, Canada with 123,699 arrivals, Hong Kong with 118,666 arrivals, United Kingdom with 113,282 and Germany with 67,023 arrivals, DOT said. (SDR/Sunnex)