THE Department of Tourism (DoT) said visitor arrivals in the six months to June hit a record 3,706,721, up 10.4% year on year.
The record arrivals for the half-year mark came despite the closure of Boracay in late April for an environmental cleanup, with the DoT adding in a statement that its full-year target of 7.4 million arrivals is in reach.
The DoT cited data reported by its Statistics, Economic Analysis and Information Management Division.
In June, arrivals amounted to 528,747, up 11.35% year on year .
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat was quoted as saying: “The DoT’s continuous marketing promotions, aggressive actions to create new air routes and develop new tourism products, travel facilitation, and confidence in tourism investments drummed up the industry and resulted in this stellar performance.”
Regarding the full-year target, “we are actually on track. We are halfway through the year and we are at exactly the halfway point on our National Tourism Development Plan target arrivals.”
