500 thousand tourists visit Central Visayas in first quarter of 2008

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cebu central visayas tourist arrival Domestic and foreign tourist arrivals in Central Visayas hit the half-million-mark in the first quarter of 2008, a 10.7 percent growth of tourists arrivals over the same period last year.

Official data of the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed total tourist arrivals from January to March reached 535,396, a 10 percent growth from last yearâ€™s 485,993 arrivals.

Phineas Alburo, DOT undersecretary for the Visayas and Mindanao, said with this number, the DOT is confident to hit the targeted 3.5 million foreign tourist arrivals for the entire country this year.

He said the country still has a competitive advantage with its beaches, diving spots and shopping malls.

Of the total number, Cebu province got 76.69 percent of the total number of tourists with 410,597, while Bohol got 12.26 percent share with 65,617 tourists.

The provinces of Negros Oriental and Siquijor landed third and fourth with 53,641 and 5,541 tourists, respectively.

DOT also noted that domestic arrivals in the region reached 318,287. Foreign arrivals is at 216,569.

Alburo said the increase in domestic tourist arrivals is due to the celebration of the Sinulog festival in January and the holding of different conventions and conferences in the first quarter.

Alburo also said heightened awareness of several destinations has also contributed to the increase in domestic tourist arrivals.

The number of overseas Filipinos visiting the region also increased to 4,379 or 72 percent growth from the 2,546 who visited Central Visayas in the same period in 2007.

For individual foreign country arrivals, Korea is still on top with 53,895 tourists, followed by Japan and United Stated of America (USA) with 43,086 and 23,228 arrivals, respectively.

The number of Korean arrivals in the region grow steadily as they come to the country to study the English language or take a vacation in the beaches.

Lawyer Augusto Go, honorary consul general of Korea in Cebu, said Cebu, for instance, is already known as a honeymoon destination for Koreans.

Go said some Koreans even chose to enroll their children in schools such as Bright Academy and Cebu International School in Cebu City.