Cebu still top hot spot for 1 million Korean visitors

South Koreans remain the top tourists in the Philippines, posting over a million arrivals a year. These are followed by Americans, Japanese, Chinese and Australians in terms of tourist arrivals. Destination-specific advertising is successfully driving visitors to Cebu and other regions.

“China and Japan are still very close. But you can assume that monthly, you have around 100,000 arrivals from Korea,” Jimenez told reporters. He noted that major markets such as Taiwan, Japan and US are again growing.

Jimenez said primary destinations in the country for Korean tourists are Manila, Cebu, Bohol and Southern Luzon. The Department of Tourism is confident that the country would rake in $6 billion in tourism revenues this year.

“We have what we call site-specific advertising now. So now the advertising as you can see is Davao, Cebu, not only Philippines. We’re getting people to get familiar with more places in the Philippines to see more things.”

Jimenez said he hopes to bring the target as close as possible to six-million arrivals and approaching the US$6-billion mark for foreigners.