Tulfo-Teo: Over 2M tourist arrivals in 2018

According to the Department of Tourism (DOT), over two million tourists visited the Philippines in the first quarter of 2018, noting the growth in the number of tourists from China, which they said has narrowed the gap between their country and the nation supplying the largest number of tourists, South Korea.

A release from the agency revealed there were 86,000 more Korean tourists than Chinese tourists in January; however, by March, that number shrank to 7,838.

“For the first quarter, it has been a tight contest between the Chinese and  the Koreans,” said DOT Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo.

Meanwhile, the United States provided the third-highest number of tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2018.

Last month, DOT-Region VI unveiled an intensified campaign to attract more tourists from China this year.

According to recent data, the Western Visayas has already seen a nearly 30 percent increase in arrivals from China./WDJ