The Philippines, for the first time, surpassed the four million visitor arrival mark welcoming a total of 4,272,811 foreign visitors in 2012, posting a 9.07 percent increase from a total of 3,917,454 visitors in 2011.
However, it barely missed its target of 4.6 million tourist arrivals in 2012, achieving only 93.8 percent of its goal of 4,556,582 visitor arrivals last year, according to the Department of Tourism (DOT).
Shortfalls were felt due to economic and political pressures from traditional markets such as US, Europe, and China. Even so, key source markets still registered positive growth for the year, the DOT said.
Tourism secretary Ramon R. Jimenez, in a press statement, said that crossing the 4-million mark is already a feat in itself. He believes that it puts the DOT on track to achieve its ultimate goal of 10 million visitor arrivals by 2016.
"It is going to become increasingly challenging to meet future targets. But we know that Filipinos are the biggest believers of our slogan, 'It's more fun in the Philippines'," Jimenez said.
"We remain confident and will continue to build on the positive energies in order to cross the 5-million milestone in 2013," he added.
Jimenez also said that the thrust of DOT's marketing in 2013 is market development, which entails expanding the potential market for new users and new uses.
"We will look into segments that we have not thoroughly explored. We will explore more creative executions geared toward sustaining the fun we have started," he said, hoping to have a stronger representation and to be part of the future of tourism in Asia.
The DOT reported that South Korea remains the biggest market and the first to contribute one million visitors with an unsurpassed record of 1,031,155 visitors or 24.13 percent of the total visitor volume to the Philippines, registering an 11.45 percent growth from South Korea in 2012.
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