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The top foreign tourist source in the Philippines is once again South Korea.

Once again, South Korea has brought the most foreign tourists to the Philippines so far this year.

This was made clear by Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco on Thursday as she welcomed 300 South Korean tourists at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

The passengers are employees of UNICITY, a direct-selling business with over 60 markets worldwide that sell health-related products such as functional foods, cosmetics, and home goods.

UNICITY-Korea annually dispatches a sizable number of incentive groups to Southeast Asian nations as a thank-you to their best agents, salespeople, and distributors.

The company is sending 1,400 personnel to Cebu this year in four waves on April 9, 13, 17, and 21.

Korean arrivals increased significantly from the previous year, according to Department of Tourism data, with 428,014 arrivals, or 16.13 percent of all arrivals, occurring between Feb. 10 (the day the country opened its borders to leisure tourists) and Dec. 31, 2022.

The good news is that as of right now, the Philippines has welcomed over 1.5 million tourists, with Koreans serving as our main source market. Since they have returned in large numbers, especially the UNICITY group, which has brought a delegation of at least 1,400 people, we are very appreciative to our Korean friends for continuing to demonstrate their love for the Philippines, Frasco remarked.

The visitors were greeted with leis upon arrival and entertained by dancers from the Sinulog festival as well as rondalla serenaders dressed in Filipiniana.

With 1,989,322 visitors or 24.08 percent of all visitors to the Philippines in 2019, Korea held the top spot in terms of visitor arrivals before the epidemic.

After the epidemic, there were only 338,877 and 6,456 arrivals from Korea in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

“They’re arriving every day, and the number is growing every day. Due to the fact that the United States is our top sourcing market, they were ranked second last year. But this year, the Koreans have recaptured the top rank, and we want to let all of our Korean friends know that they are welcome to stay visiting Cebu, Bohol, Palawan, and the rest of the Philippines’ stunning islands,” Frasco said.

PH as a prime MICE location

In particular, Frasco stated that the DOT is “seeing MICE tourism become a very strong product for the Philippines and also for Cebu” and that the arrival is of a delegation as large as the UNICITY group is a positive development.

Given the multiplier effect of tourism, which really means that they will support our local tourism stakeholders, our small and medium enterprises, and the like, Frasco said, “They are staying for a few days and we expect that this will contribute greatly to the economy of Cebu in particular, and to the rest of the country in general.”

Through its office in Korea, the DOT conducts marketing initiatives such as an online presence to inform MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) players in the Philippines about the Korean MICE market as well as participation in upcoming key events like business-to-business fairs and a MICE roadshow to further increase the Korean tourism source market and visitor arrivals.

Given the range of options Bohol provides, particularly in terms of nature-based tourism as well as pilgrimage and heritage tourism, she added, “We’re definitely also pitching for Bohol as an attractive island tourism destination in Central Visayas.”

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