By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo / Special to the BusinessMirror
THE Philippines smarted from a slowdown in visitor arrivals in August 2016, as tourists retreated from the country’s crappy monsoon weather.
Data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed total visitor arrivals eking just a 2.66-percent rise to 502,739 arrivals from 480,689 in August 2015. On a monthly basis, the August 2016 arrivals slipped by 10.4 percent from July’s 560,872.
The largest hit were arrivals from China, which plunged by 20 percent to 61,766 from 81,45 arrivals in July 2016, as a result of the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague on both countries’ dispute over the South China Sea. Even on an annual basis, Chinese arrivals in August 2016, were down by 5.6 percent, from the 65,403 who arrived in August. This was a marked turnaround from the 62.03-percent jump in Chinese arrivals in August 2015, from August 2014.
Over P20 million in losses were posted by hotels in Cebu, Bohol and Boracay in August due to the cancellations by Chinese tourists and travel agents heeding their government’s informal ban on travel to the Philippines. Even chartered flights with major Philippine carriers, such as Philippine Airlines and AirAsia Philippines, coming from several points in China were canceled due to the PCA’s ruling. See “CAB confirms more flight cancellations from China,” in the BusinessMirror, July 27, 2016.
DOT officials, however, expressed hope that Chinese arrivals would pick up now that the Beijing government lifted its ban on its citizens traveling to the Philippines. The lifting of the travel advisory was among several agreements reached during President Duterte’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, at the Great Hall of the People on October 20.
Overall, there was general downtrend in tourist arrivals in August 2016, with other major markets also recording drops in visitor arrivals from July 2015. The largest decreases were posted by India, down 28.33 percent to 6,595 arrivals; followed by the United States, down 26.5 percent to 55,080; Canada at 10,104 (-19.54 percent); the United Kingdom at 13,682 (-19.42 percent); Australia at 15,575 (-19.02 percent); and Hong Kong at 9,142 (-14.34 percent).
Other countries that sent less tourists to the Philippines in August 2016 were Malaysia (-10.08 percent); Taiwan (-10.03 percent); and Singapore (-1.02 percent).
Only Korea and Japan sent more tourists in August 2016 compared to July 2016; Japan up by 40 percent to 62,054 arrivals and Korea tourists 3.4 percent to 147,588.
In a text message to the BusinessMirror, DOT Assistant Secretary Rolando Cañizal explained: “Historically, August is a lean period for arrivals of international tourists in the Philippines. Most of them are preparing for school openings, as in the United States. Climate is also a factor for deciding to travel.”
But he stressed that “the single-digit growth [from August 2015 to August 2016] is manageable. We expect September arrivals to be in the single digits, as well.”
From January to August 2016, total visitor arrivals increased by 12.5 percent to 4.04 million, still buoyed by higher arrivals from visitors in the earlier part of the year.
Visitor receipts, or the amount earned by the local tourism industry from the spending by foreign tourists, increased by some 8 percent to P164.25 billion. For August alone, visitor receipts dropped by 28.6 percent to some P15.7 billion in August 2016, primarily due to the lower visitor arrivals for said month.
The foreign visitors were estimated to have spent about P4,095.32 every day, with each visitor spending P39,519.79 during the entire length of their visit in August. The foreign visitors also stayed an average of 9.65 nights for that month.
Visitor arrivals from mainland China, in particular, grew by 50.3 percent to 484,567, which was the highest growth rate registered among the Philippines’s source countries for tourists.
In terms of total headcount, Taiwan was another high- growth market, with arrivals increasing by some 30.6 percent to 157,517 in the eight-month period. India was the third-
largest growth market, expanding by some 24 percent to 60,091 in visitor arrivals.
On the other hand, several source markets posted dips in visitor arrivals, such as Singapore (down 1.4 percent), Malaysia (down 8.53 percent) and Hong Kong (down 2.8 percent).
In absolute terms, however, South Korea still remained the top source of visitor arrivals, growing by 8.3 percent to 976,499 and accounting for 24.16 percent of the total arrivals from January to August 2016.
It was followed by the United States, which grew almost 10 percent to 584,149 visitor arrivals, representing 14.45 percent of total arrivals. In third spot was China, followed by Japan with 367,144 arrivals, up 9.63 percent from the same period last year. The latter accounted for 9.08 percent of total inbound traffic.
Australia came in fifth place, with arrivals rising by 5.17 percent to 161,016, almost 4 percent of total market share. Others were Taiwan; then Singapore at 120,241 visitor arrivals; the United Kingdom at 117,535 (up 13.5 percent); Canada at 114,074 (up 11.52 percent); Malaysia at 95,129; Hong Kong at 81,332; and India.
The DOT aims to attract some 6 million foreign visitors this year.