Philippines attracts 4.68 m foreign tourists in 2013

Tourist arrivals in the Philippines rose by 9.56 percent on year to 4.68 million in 2013, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said on Thursday. Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez, Jr. said visitors continued to flock to the country's tourist spots, including those in central Philippines which was devastated by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake and super typhoon Haiyan in the last quarter of 2013. "Our key source markets generally performed well during the month of December, proof that international confidence has been regained," said Jimenez in a statement. DOT said visitor count reached an "all-time high" or more than 400,000 during the months of January, February, March, July, and December. Jimenez said South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Australia were the top five sources of tourists last year. DOT also said total revenues gained from foreign tourists went up by 15.1 percent on year to 186.15 billion pesos (4.4 billion U. S. dollars). The average daily expenditure of foreign tourists also increased by 8.7 percent to 101.12 U.S. dollars last year. Jimenez expressed confidence that more tourists will visit the Philippines this year owing to a number of international conferences and events which will be held in the country. Among these are the 5th World Ecotourism Conference in February and the World Economic Forum East Asia Summit in May. To sustain the increase in tourist arrivals next year, Jimenez said the government is rolling out the Visit the Philippines Year 2015 program.