Foreign tourist arrivals up by 26 percent in January

BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

A big surge of inbound tourists coming from East Asia and Europe were seen in Boracay Island this January.

Boracay Island welcomed 70,935 foreign tourists in January of this year, registering 26 percent increase compared to 56,222 arrivals for the same period last year.

According to Malay Municipal Tourism Office, the top generating markets were China (23,200 or 32.7 % visitor share), Korea (21,411 or 30.18%), Russia (4,015 or 5.6%), Taiwan (3,255 or 4.5%), United States (2,561 or 3.6%), Australia (2,493 or 3.5%) and Mexico  (1,280 or 1.8%).

Other countries in the top markets were United Kingdom (1,209 or 1.7%), Sweden (1,170 or 1.6%), Germany (1,115 or 1.5%) and Singapore (1,059 or 1.4%).

Also this January, Chinese visitors increased by 124 percent from 10,348 the previous year. Apart from Chinese, the Russian travelers grew by 13.74 percent from 3,530 last year.

By region, visitors from East Asian composed of China, Hongkong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan) accounted for the biggest share in foreign tourist arrivals with 49,170 followed by Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia) with 4,224.

North Americans from Canada, USA and Mexico came in third with 3,861 arrivals; Northern Europeans from Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and United Kingdom with arrivals reaching 3,233 and Western Europeans from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Switzerland with 2,650.

Aklan Governor Florencio Miraflores said the Boracay Island would achieve the 1.5 million tourists this year due to tourist infrastructure and aggressive marketing plans.

Last year, tourist arrivals in Boracay Island totaled 1,363,601 attributed by arrivals of  six international cruise ships and aggressive marketing plans of the provincial government. 

In 2012, 473,286 foreign tourists and 690, 872 domestic travelers visited Boracay Island.

In January alone in 2012, 58,234 foreign tourists and 45,733 locals stayed in Boracay.

As of January this year, tourist arrivals reached 122,629, of which 45,690 are domestic tourists while 70,935 are foreigners.