(Photo credit: NAIA)

QUEZON CITY (PIA) -- In just seven (7) months, the Philippines has reached its 3 million mark for international tourist arrivals including foreign visitors and overseas Filipinos, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said Wednesday.

According to the latest data from DOT, they recorded a total of 3,000,079 international visitor arrivals from January 1 to July 19, 2023 alone.

The country’s incoming tourism receipts from January 1 to June 30, 2023 have likewise surged to P212, 467,522,100.14 or 502 percent higher than the P35,292,495,457.14 tourism revenue generated from the same period last year.

Of the 3 million, 91 percent or 2,740,802 are foreign tourists, while the remaining 8 percent are overseas Filipinos.

“We are glad to report that in roughly seven months, we have already achieved the 3 million international visitor arrivals mark, reflecting continued robust recovery and the gains of the Marcos Administration towards the resurgence of Philippine tourism,” DOT Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco said in a statement.  

South Korea delivered almost a quarter of the total number of visitors for the Philippines with 741,658 (24.72 percent) followed by the United States of America (USA) in the second spot with 550,569 (18.35 percent); then Australia with 146,062 (4.87 percent); Japan with 143,227 (4.77 percent); and Canada with 132,018 (4.40 percent) as the top 5 source markets of foreign arrivals.  

Other visitors came from China with 129,077 (4.30 percent); Taiwan with 104,211 (3.47 percent); United Kingdom with 85,847 (2.86 percent); Singapore with 81,656 (2.72 percent); and Malaysia with 54,411 (1.81 percent).  (PIA-NCR/DOT)