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Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star
March 7, 2025 | 12:00am
This undated photo shows the press conference room of the Department of Tourism in Makati City.
Philstar.com / Erwin Cagadas
MANILA, Philippines — A total of 1,167,908 foreign travelers visited the Philippines in January and February, slightly higher than in the same months last year, the Department of Tourism (DOT) has reported.
This is higher by around 0.96 percent compared to the 1,156,771 foreign tourists in January and February 2024, based on DOT statistics available on its website.
Over 25 percent of the foreign visitors in 2025 or 295,611 came from South Korea, “the Philippines’ top source of tourists since 2023,” the DOT noted.
The United States was second in the list of the Philippines’ top tourist markets with 229,836 travelers, followed by Japan with 83,208, Canada with 65,145, and Australia with 61,564, it added.
In addition, 53,545 tourists from China, 41,388 from Taiwan, 34,451 from the United Kingdom, 29,352 from Singapore, and 21,252 from France came to the Philippines.
With a slight increase in tourist arrivals in the beginning of 2025 also came the growth of revenues for the Philippine tourism industry.
In her statement, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco revealed the country earned $1.1 billion or P65.3 billion from tourism activities, products and services in January 2025 alone.
The amounts were higher “by an impressive 136.1 percent in terms of US dollar and 151.46 percent in terms of Philippine peso” when compared to tourism income in 2019 or before the COVID-19 pandemic halted travel, pegged at $821 million or P43 billion, she noted.
She added the January 2025 amounts exceeded the country’s tourism revenues in January 2024, recorded at over $652 million or P36.5 billion.
“The surge of income for Philippine tourism is a sign that the industry is not only bouncing back from the pandemic but is also evolving and expanding, contributing significantly to the country’s economic stability and growth,” Frasco said.
She noted the Philippines earned an “all-time high tourism revenue of approximately P760 billion in 2024.”
