Local and foreign tourists enjoy their experience at the Kawasan falls in Badian town . | CDND File Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Department of Tourism (DOT) named Cebu as the second most preferred destination in the country by foreign visitors.
State-ran media, Philippine News Agency (PNA), quoted Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo – Puyat saying that Cebu attracted 1.4 million foreign tourists in 2019.
Cebu, home to the country’s second busiest airport, the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA), is only 200,000 foreign visitors shy from Boracay Island.
MCIA recorded a total of 3.9 million foreign arrivals for the first 11 months of 2019.
Read: MCIA records growth in air and passenger traffic in 2019
Boracay remained the top tourist destination in the country attracting 1.6 million foreign guests.
The province of Davao del Sur ranked 3rd with 1.3 million foreign arrivals.
DOT’s latest report was released on Friday, January 24, 2020.
Meanwhile, DOT announced that their agency’s Statistics, Economic Analysis and Information Management Division (SEAIMD) recorded 7.4 million foreign arrivals during the first 11 months of 2019.
This accounted to a 15.58 percent increase in foreign arrivals compared to same period in 2018.
“The double-digit monthly posting brought to 7,484,115 the total visitor arrivals from overseas from January to November 2019, which is 15.58 percent higher than the total for the same period in the previous year,” the DOT report said.
DOT has set a 8.2 million target for foreign arrivals for 2019.
The country’s tourism bureau celebrated the arrival of its 8 millionth tourist in December 2019.
South Korean remains to be the country’s top source of foreign visitors, from January to November 2019, with 1.8 million arrivals. It was followed by China with 1.6 million tourists and the United States with 954,952 tourists.
DOT data also showed that China remains to be the fastest growing market with a 40.2 percent of increase in arrivals during the first 11 months of 2019 as compared to arrivals made during the same period in 2018.
The tourism department is targeting a 9.2 million foreign tourists arrivals in 2020. / dcb