Philippine tourist arrivals hit all-time high
MANILA, Philippines - Tourist arrivals in the Philippines reached an all-time high of 3.52 million last year as increasingly affluent South Koreans and Chinese flocked to its tropical attractions, the government said Friday.
Visitor numbers in 2010 beat the previous record despite a bus hijacking that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead in August and a series of travel alerts by Western nations in November warning of an imminent terror attack.
The number of tourists arriving in the Philippines rose 16.68% over the previous year, with East Asians, led by South Koreans, accounting for nearly half the total, the tourism ministry said in a statement.
"The improved economic condition in these markets boosted their outbound traffic," the statement said.
The final numbers topped the annual target of 3.3 million set by President Benigno Aquino's government, which is seeking to boost tourist arrivals to six million by the time he leaves office in mid-2016.
Traffic from fellow Association of Southeast Asian Nations members should surge this year after passenger air services were liberalized within the 10-nation economic bloc in November last year, the ministry said.
The previous record for arrivals was set in 2008 with 3.14 million visitors.
The Philippines is targeting 3.7 million tourist arrivals this year, but this is still just a fraction of the tourist numbers enjoyed by Southeast Asian neighbors such as Thailand.
This is quite a surprise, to think that most of the tourists are afraid to come here in the Philippines because of some issues like the ABUSAYAF, deadly tourist bus hijack and foreign warnings of terror attacks. Knowing that the number of foreigners visiting the Philippines increased would be our key to prove that our country is not bad as what they think. It does not only help the Philippine tourism but it would also help improve our economy. There would be a possibility that more and more investors would invest here in the Philippines especially if they would receive a positive feedback and a possibility that some businessman would widen their businesses. If that happens there would be new job openings which would be of great help to reduce the rate of unemployed people. It’s too common to say that people should help and have peace with one another because it’s just the same; nothing really happens if that’s the case. My only advice is people should avoid doing some lame things especially if the reputation of our country is at stake, because we are not only viewed as individual persons but as a nation. In this way, we could help one another in boosting our economy.
