Tourism to the Philippines reaches all-time high

Muscat: Tourism to the Philippines reached an "all-time high" of 3.7 million during the first half of 2018, according to a senior official in the country's department of tourism.

Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, Department of Tourism Secratary, said "We are actually on track. We are halfway through the year and we are exactly halfway through our National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) target arrivals."

South Korea remains the country's top tourist market, with a total of 818,683 South Korean visitors to the Philippines during the first half of 2018, followed by China with 645,089 and the United States with 557,833.

In the month of April alone, the Philippines attracted over 591,000 tourists, including more than 6,600 from the Middle East.