Tourism earnings as of Oct. rose 8% to P187B

TOURISM receipts rose 8 percent to P187 billion in the first 10 months of 2015, from the P173 billion recorded in the same period last year, according to the Department of Tourism.

For October alone, revenues from tourism grew at a faster pace of 21.5 percent to P18 billion from the P14.9 billion recorded in October last year.

DOT data showed that Korea remained the top source of receipts, contributing P4.57 billion to the local tourism industry, followed by the United States, which provided the second biggest spending of P3.99 billion; Canada, P1.05 billion; Japan, P970 million; and Australia, with P950 million.

Based on these numbers, the Average Daily Expenditure of international visitors for October was estimated at P5,200.30 while the Average Length of Stay for the same month stood at 9.66 nights.

In terms of tourist arrivals, the Philippines recorded an 11-percent growth to 4.39 million inbound visitors from January to October this year, from the 3.96 million arrivals registered a year ago.

Within that 10-month period, July saw the biggest arrivals of 489,724 while September posted the highest growth rate of 19.64 percent.

“Auguring well for the tourism industry is the consistent positive growth recorded on a month to month basis. For four consecutive months starting July, arrivals recorded double-digit gains,” the DOT said.

According to the DOT, arrivals from Korea posted another record as this market reached 1.1. million visitors for a 25-percent share and a 14.7-percent growth.

“It could be noted that this market was the first to reach one million arrivals in 2012 and has since continued to provide more than a million arrivals in the succeeding years,” the agency said in its industry performance report.

The United States, meanwhile, supplied the second biggest influx of tourists with 636,658 visitors in the first 10 months, accounting for 14.48 percent of total arrivals.

Japan ranked third, followed by China and Australia.

Completing the list of top 10 visitor markets for the first 10 months are Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, United Kingdom and Canada.