Philippines receives over 3 mln foreign tourists in H1

Over 3 million foreign tourists have visited the Philippines in the first half of this year, according to the Philippines' Department of Tourism (DOT) data released Wednesday night.

Philippine Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco said the Southeast Asian country recorded 3,000,079 international visitor arrivals from Jan. 1 to June 19, reflecting the "continued robust recovery" of the tourism sector.

The inbound tourism receipts in the first six months climbed to more than 3.9 billion U.S. dollars, almost five times higher than the revenue generated in the same period in 2022, Frasco said.

South Korea was the top source market with 741,658 visitors, followed by the United States, Australia, Japan and Canada.

"Tourism provides employment and livelihood to millions of Filipinos. We are grateful for the renewed interest worldwide in the Philippines," Frasco said.

According to data from the DOT, the Philippines received over 2.65 million foreign tourists in 2022, raking in 3.84 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, contributing 6.2 percent of the country's GDP.

For this year, the country's tourism department targets international arrivals to hit between 2.6 million to 6.4 million "in a high scenario."