Foreign Tourists Surpassed 3 Billion Mark
If you wonder why you see more foreigners around, there’s an explanation: there’s really more of them in our country.
According to the Department of Tourism, “The year 2007 was a year of breakthroughs for the tourism industry in the Philippines. For the first time ever, foreign arrivals in the country breached the three-million mark in 2007.” There were 3.09 million tourists last year racking up a total expense of $4.885 billion. Koreans (653,310) were the largest group of tourists, followed by Americans (578,983), Japanese (395,012), Chinese (157,601) and Australians (112,466). These tourists came to visit the beach, play, golf, dive, spend their honeymoon, shop, have a medical procedure and even to learn English.
The Department of Tourism aims not only to attract more tourists but also higher-value visitors who would stay longer and spend more. They are targeting $5 to $8 billion in tourist spending for this year, 2008. (goodnewspilipinas.com)
