International visitors to the Philippines for the first two months of the year closed at another record high of 854,187 or a double-digit growth of 10.5% from 772,989 of the same period in 2012. The country extended its record-breaking run by surpassing the 400,000 arrival mark for both January (436,079 arrivals) and February, making it three months in a row since December 2012 with 442,088 arrivals – an uptrend that is expected to continue until the summer months.
Visitor arrivals for February 2013 soared 15.52% with 418,108 arrivals, marking the first time that this month achieved more than 400,000 visitors. The Chinese New Year stimulated the growth during the month, with Hong Kong posting a 93.80% growth rate, China registering 69.87%, Macau at 44.05%, and Taiwan at 20.67%. Countries from the ASEAN region likewise registered double-digit gains.
For the period January to February 2013, Korea remained the top contributor with 241,116 visitors, growing by 25.6% and cornering slightly more than a quarter of the total inbound traffic. The second largest yield came from the United States with 120,868 or 14.2% of the visitor count. Arrivals from Japan comprised the third biggest arrivals of 73,621 visitors. The list is followed by China with 69,610; Taiwan with 37,921; Australia with 34,095; Singapore with 25,800; Canada with 25,338; Hongkong with 23,097; Malaysia with 18,947; United Kingdom with 18,563; and Germany with 13,774.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
.jpg)
