Philippines sees sharp rise in tourists from Middle East

World Monday 14/May/2018 12:35 PM
By: Times News Service
Philippines sees sharp rise in tourists from Middle East

Muscat: The number of tourists visiting Philippines increased by 96.66 per cent during January and February, 2018, when compared to the same period last year, the Philippine Department of Tourism (PDOT) announced.
The data released by PDOT also suggests that PHP78.82 billion (1.5 billion USD) flowed in during the first two months of 2018, which was a sharp rise from PHP40.08 billion (7.6 million USD) made in 2017.
While people from all over the world visit Philippines, the 15 top-spending markets were Japan, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Germany, France and Saudi Arabia, the biggest tourism market of the Philippines from the Middle East region.
While the report cited that China spent the most at USD258 billion, the Philippines has seen a consistent growth in tourist arrivals from the Middle East. In 2016, the country received a total of 83,546 tourists from the region, growing by 9.69 per cent from 2015. Tourist arrivals from Saudi Arabia and UAE, the two largest markets out of the region for the Philippines, reached 50,884 and 16,881 respectively.
PDOT stated that it aims to achieve 100,000 tourists from the Middle East by the end of 2018 and proactively develop strategic partnerships with key stakeholders in the Middle East to capture a sizeable percentage of its high-yield tourist market.