DOT-7: Total Tourism Arrivals in CV Up for First 9 Months

(PIA) — Total tourism arrivals in Central Visayas from both foreign and domestic visitors from January to September this year grew by 4.56% compared to the same period last year.

Marlon Barrientos, tourism operations officer II of the Department of Tourism (DOT7), presented the agency data showing that 3,172,430 million tourists visited Central Visayas for the first nine months in 2015 compared to 3,034,120 visitors of the same period last year.

Domestic tourists accounted for 1,808,730 million and foreign visitors reached 1,352,920 million arrivals from January to September, this year.

Cebu had the largest share of both the local and international tourists with 1,172, 219 million for domestic visitors, accounting for 65% and 1,140,136 million for foreign arrivals or equivalent to over 80%.

Negros Oriental placed second for the most visited province among local tourists with 384,809 followed by Bohol with 225,344, and Siquijor with 26,358.

Bohol, however, was the preferred choice for foreign tourists after Cebu getting 115,330 visitors, with Negros Oriental at third spot with 77,138, and Siquijor with 20, 316 foreign tourists.

The DOT-7 presentation showed the top 10 foreign markets for Central Visayas with Korea as the top visitor followed by Japan, United States, China, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, France, and Taiwan.

According to DOT-7, there were 507,455 Koreans that visited the region for the first nine months this year, comprising the bulk of the foreign tourist market share at 43% followed by the Japanese with 20.5% or equivalent to 239,407 and at third place were the Americans with 10% or 116,643 US tourists.

Barrientos said the data for the fourth quarter or from October to December would be released sometime early next year, adding that the ranking would more or less be the same, relative to foreign market share.

The DOT-7 tourism operations officer said the agency is busy preparing for the Sinulog Festival 2016 as it invited some members of the international press to cover the event as part of the tourism promotion campaign to further increase foreign tourist arrivals to Cebu and the region. (rmn/fcr/PIA7)