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Did you
know that…
… in 2009 an average of 954 foreign visitors per day visit Western
Visayas?... 4 out of 10 of these foreign visitors are Korean nationals…
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In 2009, the Department of Tourism registered a total of 1,821,896 tourist arrivals in Western Visayas. Of these, 77.3 percent (1,407,549) are domestic and 19.1 percent (348,239) are foreign visitors. The remaining 3.6 percent (66,108) are overseas Filipinos. Of the foreign visitors, an average of 954 per day visited Western Visayas. Of this, 4 out of 10 are Korean nationals.
During the year, tourists preferred Aklan and Negros Occidental as their major destinations in Western Visayas. Of the total tourist arrivals, 37.0 percent (674,447) visited the province of Aklan and 35.2 percent (640,927) visited Negros Occidental. Almost 20.0 percent (363,277) visited Iloilo; 3.1 percent (56,477) visited Capiz; 2.8 percent (51,786) visited Guimaras; and 1.9 percent (34,982) visited Antique.
For foreign tourists, Aklan still remained as the favorite tourist destination in 2009. More than half (55.8%) or an average of 528 per day visited Boaracay. Domestic visitors, on the other hand, opted for Negros Occidental as the place to go.
The highest influx of foreign tourists in Aklan was noted in the month of January reaching 23,357 visitors. This may be attributed to the annual festival celebration of the province, the “Ati-Atihan Festival” celebrated every third week of January in honor of Sto. Niño. For domestic tourists, the highest number of arrivals in Aklan was registered during summer, in the months of March (41,007), April (75,161), and May (68,837).
Next to Aklan as the major tourist destination in Western Visayas are Negros Occidental and Bacolod City with a combined total of 640,927 tourist arrivals. Both foreign and domestic tourists arrivals was remarkably noted in the months of March (59,423), April (60,038), and May (62,682).
Meanwhile, Iloilo and Iloilo City registered a total of 363,277 visitor arrivals in 2009. The biggest influx of both foreign and domestic tourists were in the months of January (36,576), March (33,483) and April (32,510). It must be noted that January is the month of the “Dinagyang Festival” celebrated every 4th week of the month in honor of the feast of Sto. Niño. February is also the feast of Our Lady of Candles or the Jaro fiesta, one of the most popular fiestas in the country.
In terms of revenues, the 1,821,896 tourist arrivals in Western Visayas generated Php33.5 billion tourist receipts or an average of Php91.8 million per day. Aklan had an average daily tourist receipt of Php33.9 million from the 674,447 tourist arrivals and Negros Occidental had an average daily tourist receipt of Php32.3 million.
Aklan, Negros Occidental, and Iloilo contributed 37.2 percent; 35.2 percent, and 19.8 percent, respectively to total tourist receipts of the region. Capiz, Guimaras, and Antique had a minimal contribution of 3.1 percent, 2.8 percent, and 1.9 percent, respectively.
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Top
Ten Foreign Visitor Arrivals |
Among the foreign visitor arrivals in the region, East Asian posted the highest number in 2009 with 213,834 visitors, followed by Europeans with 37,123, and North Americans, with 30,923.
Of the East Asian visitors, more than half or 66.5 percent were Korean nationals, 14.4 percent were Chinese and 11.2 percent, Taiwanese. On the whole, the top ten foreign visitor arrivals in the region were from Korea (40.8%). Following with a large gap were from China (8.8%), USA (7.0%), Taiwan (6.9%), Japan (2.8%), Australia (2.6%), Germany and United Kingdom (2.2%) each, Hongkong (2.1%), and Canada (1.9%).