More Malaysians visiting Philippines

Published on: Wednesday, May 17, 2023

By: Nikko Fabian

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Christina added the Philippines breached the two million mark in international arrivals for the first five months of 2023, surpassing last year’s baseline target.

Kota Kinabalu: The Philippines continue to see an increase in Malaysian visitors despite the challenges and difficulties that the country faced.

From January to May 12, the Department Of Tourism (DOT) recorded a total of 36,739 Malaysian arrivals and the figure is expected to further rise until December.

DOT Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco announced the good news over the weekend, citing the latest data of 2,002,304 international visitor arrivals from January 1 to May 12 that exceeded the entire 2022 target of 1.7 million foreign visitors.

“Notwithstanding the challenges and difficulties that our country faced, a pandemic and the various calamities that came to our shores, the good news is that these have done nothing to break the Filipino spirit or to diminish the beauty of the Philippines,” she said.

Christina added the Philippines breached the two million mark in international arrivals for the first five months of 2023, surpassing last year’s baseline target.

The latest data of 2,002,304 international visitor arrivals (January 1 to May 12) exceeded the entire 2022 target of 1.7 million foreign visitors.

“We’re very optimistic for the prospects in our country in terms of being a tourism powerhouse in Asia, anchored on the strength of our Filipino culture as well as the values of sustainability, resilience and global competitiveness.”

Meanwhile, South Koreans made up almost a quarter of the total number of visitors with 487,502 (24.35 per cent); followed by Americans with 352,894 or 17.62 per cent; Australians, 102,494 (5.12 per cent); Canadians, 98,593 (4.92 per cent); Japanese, 97,329 (4.86 per cent); Chinese, 75,043; Taiwanese, 62,654; British, 62,291; Singaporeans, 53,359; and Malaysians, 36,789.

Citing the same report, DOT recorded PHP168.52 billion in inbound visitor receipts from January to April, or 782.59 per cent higher than the PHP19,093,427,035.59 generated during the same period last year.