DOT TO SURPASS 2.6 M TOURIST ARRIVALS TARGET FOR 2005

Friday, December 23, 2005

The Department of Tourism (DOT) is highly optimistic it will surpass the
arrivals target of 2.6M set for yearend. This after the DOT Statistics
Division has released its latest official data on tourist arrivals at
2.11M -- just for the first ten months of the year, registering a growth of
13.6% as compared to 2004 figures.

"We are indeed close to achieving our goal for 2005. Given the latest facts on tourism arrivals, there is definitely no doubt that we will go beyond our 2.6M target, especially with the peak seasons November and December still unaccounted for" said Tourism Secretary Ace Durano.

For the month of October alone, a growth of 17.7% from 2004's 175,644 to this year's 206,792 had been established.

Top markets for the month: Korea, United States, and Japan provided
significant increase in their respective numbers. Korea, the top source
market for the period, recorded a remarkable boost of 42.8%, after providing 42,044 visitors this year from 29,445. American guest arrivals likewise escalated from last year's 36,232 to 2005's 39,781. Japan's figures also grew to 32,748 as compared to its 28,646 of the same period last year, garnering an improvement of 14.3%.

Philippines' fastest-growing market China yet again recorded a massive
step-up of 188.9%, augmenting its travelers to 10,644 from 3,684 in 2004.

Durano disclosed, "These developments are the results of our market specific sub-campaigns that we have implemented in these priority markets."

Furthermore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, Canada, United
Kingdom, Germany, and Malaysia also provided considerable support to theincrease in tourism arrivals for the period.

"At year end, the Department is finalizing to launch new marketing plans and beefed up promotional campaigns to make our operations even more sweeping and effective in 2006," ended Secretary Durano.

Courtesy of:
WOW Philippines [http://www.wowphilippines.ph]