Thursday, November 27, 2008
The expansion in visitor volume for January to October 2008 is greatly attributed to the increases in tourist arrivals from new source markets such as Russia which grew by 36.70 percent, India by 15.36 percent, and China by 9.95 percent. The influx of tourists from these new markets augmented the slowdown of growth rates from traditional source markets such as Japan and Korea which have been affected by the financial crisis in the United States.
In addition, the surge in Russian, Indian and Chinese tourists have also provided opportunity to augment air linkages and tourism investments. China Eastern Airline now flies directly between the cities of Shanghai and Cebu two times a week. Chartered flights between Russia and Boracay continued to increase while awaiting the conclusion of air services agreement between Russia and the Philippines by the end of the year. Two Chinese resort investments in Palawan with the total amount of P 994 Million have also been endorsed for incentives.
Visitor arrivals from ASEAN rose by 8.64 percent to 211,120 with tourists from Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand posting 32.07, 10.85 and 10.28 percent growth, respectively as Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines increased its flight frequencies to these ASEAN countries.
Scandinavian market consisting of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark posted 12.98 percent growth over previous year’s volume of 30,091. This market continued to surpass the growth rates registered by traditional sources. In addition, tourists from France went up by 20.94 percent and the United Kingdom by 13.99 percent during the ten-month period as the Department of Tourism pursued the launch and promotion of diving, bird watching and adventure programs in these markets.
Tourists from the United Arab Emirates also showed 32.07 percent hike with the maiden participation of the Department of Tourism in two major international travel fairs for the Middle East market, namely: the Arabian Travel Mart and Health Care Travel Exhibition in Dubai. Likewise, the Department spearheaded the organization of the First Philippine Property Show also in Dubai.
Despite the global crisis, arrivals from the USA modestly grew by 0.56 percent. Based on the projection of the UNWTO, tourist’s volumes from these markets are estimated to slowdown towards the end of the year and the first semester of 2009.
Tourist arrivals for the first ten months of 2008 reached an all time high of 2,607,118 for a 4 percent growth over the same period last year.
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