Chinese form half of Boracay visitors in new year

Boracay Island of Philippines has still been favourite among Chinese and Korean tourists, despite the challenges posed by its closure and rehabilitation in recent months.

As per the statistics of the Department of Tourism in Boracay, the two leading tourist market sources accounted for 80 per cent of 216,766 foreigners visiting the island for the first two months of 2019.

Overall, the domestic tourism market drew 110,406 arrivals, 13,147 of whom were overseas Filipino workers. Total tourist arrivals for the first two months totalled 340,309 compared to 375,993 last year. The drop in tourist numbers was due to Boracay’s closure and capping in the maximum number of visitors allowed on the island in view of the Boracay’s carrying capacity.

Chines tourists constitute almost half of the total foreign tourists visited Boracay with 49 per cent, counting 107,164. This was followed by Korea with 68,453 or 31 per cent of inbound tourists. Americans were the third largest market with 5,502 or 3 per cent of total travellers for the period.

Other sources of tourists were Russia with 3,499; Australia, 2,914; United Kingdom, 2,724; Taiwan, 1,940; Canada, 1,899; and Germany, 1,795 arrivals.

During the month of February alone, Chinese tourists marked 59,768 arrivals, while 34,466 Koreans visited Boracay.

Tourists from East Asia – specifically China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan – comprised the biggest market share of all visitors with 179,835 arrivals or 82 per cent of total foreigners.

Department of Tourism (DOT) – Boracay, said there were 3,953 arrivals from Eastern Europe, specifically Russia, Poland, and from the Commonwealth of Independent States.