China to become Philippines' top tourist source with 1.5 million visitors
2018/4/24 9:43:16
"In a matter of months, we could see China dislodging South Korea as our number one supplier of foreign tourists," said Lito Atienza, a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, in a statement.
Citing data from the Department of Tourism (DOT), Atienza said China dislodged the United States for the first time as the Philippines' second-biggest supplier of foreign visitors in 2017.
He said DOT statistics show that the Philippines received a total of 6,620,908 foreign visitors in 2017, up 11 percent from 5,967,006 in 2016.
The number of Chinese tourists surged by 43.33 percent to 968,447 in 2017 from 675,663 million in 2016, Atienza said.