Tourist arrivals in Philippines high in Jan.

Tourist arrivals in the Philippines rose to a record high of 411,064 in January, the country's tourism department said Thursday. "We are happy to set a new all-time high for the industry, as we have now reached and surpassed the 400,000 visitor arrival mark for the first time in any single month," Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. said in a statement. January's tourist arrivals are 17.5 percent higher than what was recorded in January 2011. Koreans account for about 25 percent of tourist arrivals for the month, with 102,166 travelers from the Republic of Korea visiting the Philippines in January alone. Visitors from the US came second with 63,160 arrivals contributing 15.4 percent of the total inbound traffic. The Chinese market, meanwhile, bested the Japanese market, recording the third biggest volume of 42,868 arrivals. This is nearly three times more than the 15,656 Chinese that visited the country in January 2011. Tourism officials said this is because the Lunar New Year holiday occurred on the third week of January of this year. Overseas Filipinos, or Filipinos permanently residing abroad, contributed 15,531 arrivals, registering 3.8 percent to the total volume. Jimenez expects tourist arrivals to continue rising for the rest of the year. "We expect that these numbers will continue to steadily increase with the introduction of our new brand campaign this year, " he said, alluding to its roll-out of the "It's More Fun in the Philippines" campaign. The Philippines aims to attract 4.6 million tourists to visit the country this year.