Palace confident of achieving tourism target
Malacanang expressed confidence on Sunday that
the government would reach its tourist arrival target of 5.5-million by the end
of 2013.
In a press briefing aired over government-run
radio station dzRB Radyo ng Bayan, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail
Valte said that tourist arrivals for the first quarter of this year has already
breached the one million mark and thus bodes well for the Department of
Tourism’s target tourist arrivals.
“This marks the second time that the foreign
visitor arrival has breached the one million mark kahit first quarter pa lang,”
Valte said.
“And because of that, the Department of Tourism
will reach its 5.5-million arrival target for 2013,” she added.
In a statement, the DOT said that the
1.27-million tourist arrivals recorded from January to March of this year, a
10.76-percent growth from last year’s 1.15 million for the same period, was a
result of government’s stepped-up efforts to improve infrastructure, safety and
facilities to allow ease of travel to various tourist spots in the country.
“Month after month, we bear witness to a steady
upward performance and new record highs. This only means that the efforts of
the Department and its partners are bearing fruit. To achieve our 2013 target
of 5.5 million and 2016 target of ten million, the Department and its industry
partners are actively working on stimulating greater demand overseas, while
infrastructure agencies have committed to step up our convergence programs to
facilitate entry and access to the different destinations in the country,”
Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said.
“…the expansion and development of secondary
gateways could ease the volume of traffic in the primary gateways of Manila and
open the country to more visitors by bringing them closer to their end
destinations. Significant investments in the air transportation, as well as in
the accommodation sector, are seen to beef up capacities in the years to come,”
he added.
According to the DOT, Korea remains the leading
visitor market, which captured 25.83% of the total inbound traffic with 328,454
arrivals, followed by the United States with 186,065 or 14.63% of the overall
visitor volume.
The Japanese market contributed the third
biggest arrivals with 114,269 or 8.99%. Rounding up the top five visitor
markets for the first quarter are China with 98,242 and Taiwan with 53,867
visitors. The Korean market rose by 23.93%, the highest among the top five
major markets.
Other key markets contributing significant
volume of arrivals include Australia with 53,679; Singapore with 41,524; Canada
with 38,486; Hongkong with 36,005; United Kingdom with 32,475; Malaysia with
27,212; and Germany with 22,491.
Double-digit gains were recorded by the Russian
Federation (26.9%), Hongkong (25.04%), Korea (23.93%), India (22.1%), Singapore
(15.42%), Australia (12.65%), and Malaysia (11.86%). The ASEAN source markets
grew 14.82% while East Asia increased by 14.15%. PND (rck)
