By BOY RYAN B. ZABAL
BORACAY — International tourist arrivals here grew by 15.32 percent in the first six months of this year.
From 298,689 in January to June last year, the number of foreigners in the island resort rose to 352,737 in the same period this year.
The increase was mainly attributed to the regional flights of budget carriers and the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) aggressive marketing campaign.
Foreign tourist arrivals in the island during the same period in 2012 reached 248,580.
This year, the East Asian market — China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan — remained the largest contributor with 254,528 arrivals (72.15 percent).
Tourists from Brunei, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia composed the second largest market, numbering 19,063.
Arrivals from Canada, Mexico and the United States followed with 17,093.
The top 10 foreign tourists in terms of arrivals in Boracay during the first half of the year were Korea (116,625), China (109,920), Taiwan (20,340), United States (12,671), Russia (10,998), Singapore (9,842), Australia (9,676), Malaysia (6,751), United Kingdom (5,569), and Germany (5,153).
Meanwhile, the number of domestic tourists soared to 467,204 from January to June this year from 450,427 last year.
Korean tourists emerged as top visitors last month, with 21,146 arrivals, followed by the Chinese with 9,812 and the Taiwanese with 4,296.
DOT has forecast tourist arrivals to grow to 1.5 million this year from 1.3 million last year, Boracay officer-in-charge Artemio Ticar said. (Aklan Forum Journal/PN)
