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Tourist arrivals up 19% in 2010 despite scares
MANILA, Phlippines - The country saw a rebound in visitor arrivals last year despite a deadly tourist bus hijack and foreign warnings of terror attacks, the government said on Monday.
A total of 3.45 million foreigners went through the country’s main ports of entry in 2010, up from 2.89 million in 2009, interim Immigration chief Ronaldo P. Ledesma said in a statement.
Data from the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), meanwhile, showed that the number of passengers on international flights to the country rose by 6.4% to 3.59 million last year, reversing 2009’s 6.2% slump.
International passenger traffic, or total inbound and outbound passengers, increased by 6.3% to 7.3 million people in 2010 from 6.87 million a year earlier.
"These numbers send a very clear message that the confidence of the international community in the Philippines and the government of President [Benigno S.C.] Aquino [III] is very strong," Mr. Ledesma said.
Mr. Aquino had protested publicly last November after Australia, Britain, Canada, France, New Zealand and the United States warned their citizens that a terrorist attack on the Philippines was imminent.
The Philippines has long been troubled by an Islamic militant movement engaged in bombings and kidnappings, mainly in the south of the country.
The country’s international reputation took a hit in August when a botched police rescue effort to end a bus hijacking stand-off in Manila left eight Hong Kong tourists dead.
The immigration bureau said visitor arrivals fell to 188,028 in September, amid the immediate fallout of the hostage fiasco. But it said the numbers picked up strongly to an average of nearly 230,000 visitors for each of the last three months of the year.
MIAA data supported immigration’s tally, with arrivals rising by 5.5% to 377,659 people last December from 358,055 people a year earlier.
"The figures were driven up by overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East and China who were returning home for the holidays," MIAA chief Jose Angel A. Honrado told BusinessWorld.
In a separate interview, Tourism Secretary Alberto A. Lim said last year’s controversies did not affect the Philippines’ 2010 target of 3.3 million tourists.
Mr. Lim did not elaborate but Tourism Assistant Secretary Benito Bengzon told AFP the government was optimistic that arrival numbers for 2010 would be about the same as the immigration bureau’s figures. -- with a report from AFP
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/01/11/11/tourist-arrivals-19-2010-despite-scares
Reaction:
While reading this article I feel happy for our country’s tourism was not really affected by the incident that scared some foreigner. That was August last year when a tourist bus was hijacked by Ronald Mendoza, a police officer who got fired from his job. That left 8 Hong Kong national dead. This incident made warning to different countries specially the Hong Kong. But in spite of this incident, scarcity and economic world problem we are facing still the number of foreigner who went through the country’s main spots is going higher.
An increased in tourism is really big news for us Filipino’s for this will help our economy grow. The more foreigners who will come and visit our country the better it is for our country. This won’t only benefit the businessman but the entire Filipino and the foreigner who come for they have seen and witnessed how beautiful and rich our country is in resources.
As a student and a citizen of this country I myself is affected to what anything will happen to the tourism because we are talking here of the country’s tourism which I belong and this affects the economy of our country. If whatever happens to the economy the whole Philippines will be affected an increased in our necessities and fare might happen.
