ILOILO City – From January to July this year 418,079 tourists – 400,640 domestic and 17,439 foreign – visited this city, partial data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) Region 6 showed.
Tourism receipts in the seven-month period reached P7.8 billion, DOT-6 further revealed.
The Top 5 visiting nationalities were the Americans (5,235), South Koreans (1,757), mainland Chinese (1,675), Canadians (899), and Australians (816).
Regional Director Helen Catalbas said the figures should guide local government units where to anchor their tourism development plans.
“These should help enhance existing tourism products, services and destinations as well as develop new ones,” she added.
Iloilo City was second to Aklan in tourist arrivals. With Boracay Island as main draw, the province attracted 1,103,334 visitors from January to July.
Bacolod City ranked third with 396,647 tourist arrivals, followed by Negros Occidental (221,057), Capiz (95,616), Guimaras (68,636), Antique (34,728), and Iloilo province (34,650).
Western Visayas attracted 2,518, 045 domestic and foreign tourists from January to July./PN
