Palace confident PHL can achieve 5.5-m tourism target for 2013

Malacañang on Sunday voiced confidence that the Philippines can achieve its target of 5.5 million tourist arrivals by end-2013, after tourist arrivals for the first quarter exceeded one million. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said this was the second time the number of foreign visitor arrivals surpassed one million in the first quarter of the year. “And because of that, the Department of Tourism will reach its 5.5-million arrival target for 2013,” she said in an interview on government-run dzRB radio. Excerpts of the interview were posted on the Presidential Communications and Operations Office website. The PCOO quoted the Department of Tourism as saying there were 1.27 million tourist arrivals from January to March 2013, up 10.76 percent from last year’s 1.15 million for the same period. DOT Secretary Ramon Jimenez said his agency is also working to reach 10 million tourist arrivals in 2016. To achieve this, he said, the DOT and its industry partners are working to trigger greater demand overseas, while other agencies concentrate on infrastructure. He said these may include investments in the air transportation and accommodation sectors. The Palace statement quoted the DOT as saying Korea remains the top visitor market, accounting for 25.83 percent of inbound traffic with 328,454 arrivals. The United States was second with 186,065 or 14.63 percent of the overall visitor volume. Japan was third 114,269 or 8.99 percent. China followed with 98,242 and Taiwan with 53,867. Other key markets included Australia with 53,679; Singapore with 41,524; Canada with 38,486; Hong Kong with 36,005; United Kingdom with 32,475; Malaysia with 27,212; and Germany with 22,491. — BM, GMA News