SOUTH Korea is again the Philippines’ top source of foreign visitors so far this year.
Tourism secretary Christina Frasco bared this on Thursday, April 13, when she greeted a batch of 300 travelers from South Korea at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
The travelers sare members of the Korea branch of UNICITY, a direct selling company on health functional foods, cosmetics, and household items and with over 60 markets globally.
As a reward to their top agents, sellers, and distributors, UNICITY-Korea sends a big volume of incentive groups to Southeast Asian countries annually.
This year, the company is sending 1,400 people in four batches (April 9, 13, 17, and 21) to Cebu.
Department of Tourism data showed a significant pick up in Korean arrivals since last year, with 428,014 or a 16.13 percent share of the country’s arrivals received between Feb. 10 – when the country eased its borders for leisure travelers – up until Dec. 31, 2022.
“The good news is that as of today, we have over 1.5 million tourist arrivals to the Philippines and our number one top source market are the Koreans. So we’re very grateful to our friends from Korea for continuing to show their love for the Philippines as they have come back in droves, and the UNICITY group in particular, has come with a delegation of no less than 1,400 individuals,” Frasco said.
Upon their arrival, the travelers were welcomed with leis and performances by Filipiniana-clad rondalla serenaders as well as by Sinulog dancers.
Prior to the pandemic, Korea ranked number one in terms of visitor arrivals to the Philippines, with 1,989,322 or 24.08 percent of the country’s total number of arrivals for 2019.
Arrivals from Korea declined drastically during the pandemic, dropping to 338,877 and 6,456, for 2020 and 2021, respectively. (PNA)/PN
