DOT: 1.8M foreign tourists visited PHL in 1st quarter, an increase of 11.4%

Almost 1.8 million foreign tourists came to the Philippines during the first three months of the year—an increase of 11.4 percent over the same period in 2016—the Department of Tourism (DOT) said on Wednesday.

Tourism Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. said the rate was higher than the Asian average of around 7 percent and the global average that ranges at 4.5 percent.

"This is just released yesterday and we're happy to tell you that foreign visitors arrival to the Philippines from January to March 2017 reached a total of 1,784,852," Bengzon said during a press conference.

"This is just released yesterday and we're happy to tell you that foreign visitors arrival to the Philippines from January to March 2017 reached a total of 1,784,852," he added.

Bengzon said the number was "quite significant" as the country managed to sustain a "steady growrh of foreign arrivals" over the last few years.

"So clearly, Philippine tourisn continues to grow above the curve and this is a strong indication that Philippines continues on a very exciting proposition..." Bengzon said.

However, Bengzon said that the DOT still did not have estimate of the number of arrivals of foreign visitors in the country following the martial law declaration in Mindanao and the recent incident in Resorts World Manila.

"We do not have an estimate yet, although we continue to gather data from the stakeholders here in the Philippines. If we talk about stakeholders mga hotels, resorts, even the airlines..." Bengzon said.

"I think it's very important to put things into perspective and to make sure that we're very precise when we analyze the potential impact of all these developments," he added.

Moreover, he admitted that were indeed cancellations of trips of foreign visitors to the Philippines but he clarified that this is smaller compared to the number of those who decided to push through with their trips.

"Yes, there were cancellations but when we look at the volume of the cancellations versus the volume of tourist trips to the Philippines, the cancellations were very very small compared to the actual arrivals that we generated," Bengzon said. —NB, GMA News