PHILIPPINES. Tourist arrivals in the Philippines dropped -25% year-on-year in April due to worries over SARS, Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon said today. This compares to the -9.9% dip in March.
“We’re being affected by SARS,” Gordon told a local television station. “But this was partly compensated by a rise in domestic tourism.”
Gordon said that between January and April, tourist arrivals were down around -6% year-on-year. The biggest falls in tourist numbers were from Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and China.
The Philippines government is targeting an increase in tourist arrivals to over two million this year, after registering a +7.6% increase to 1.93 million in 2002.
