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Wednesday April 12, 12:56 PM
PHILIPPINES TARGETS 3 MLN FOREIGN TOURIST ARRIVALS THIS YEAR
CEBU CITY, April 12 Asia Pulse - The Department of Tourism
(DOT) is targeting three million foreign tourist arrivals this
year amid the positive outlook in the country's tourism
industry. Tourism Secretary Joseph "Ace" Durano noted that the
Philippines had registered double-digit growth for the past two
years as far as foreign tourists are concerned. Foreign visitors rose from 2.29 million in 2004 to 2.613
million in 2005, generating US$2.12 billion in dollar
receipts. DOT records also showed growth in tourist arrivals from all
key regions of the world. East Asia registered 15 per cent growth while arrivals from
south Asia and the Middle East posted rose by13.9 per cent and
18.2 per cent, respectively. The other regions that registered increased arrivals include
North America (10.7 per cent), South America (13.2 per cent),
Western Europe (12.2 per cent), Northern Europe (13.8 per
cent), Southern Europe (14.3 per cent) and Eastern Europe
(161.5 per cent). This year is also promising as foreign visitors grew
considerably, Durano said. "We have registered 17 per cent growth for the first two
months this year. Even before the end of the quarter, we
exceeded 500,000 foreign tourists," he pointed out. However, the country could not attract as much tourists as
it would like because of limited accommodation, he said. According to Durano, the department is targeting three
million because this is the country's current capacity. "We have to encourage the tourism industry to invest and
increase this capacity to accommodate our target of five
million arrivals in 2010," Durano said. (PNA)
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