Tourist arrivals for the first ten months of 2008 reached 2.6 million reflecting a 4 percent growth over the same period last year.

Koreans make up 20 percent of total arrivals followed by balikbayans mostly coming from the US.

Arrivals from new source markets also helped boost tourist arrivals.

Russian arrivals grew by 37 percent, India, 16 percent and China, 10 percent.

These new segments helped offset the slowdown of growth rates from traditional source markets such as Japan and Korea, which have been affected by the financial crisis in the United States.

In addition, the surge in Russian, Indian and Chinese tourists has also set in motion air linkages and tourism investments in the said markets.

These developments include the launch of Shanghai-Cebu direct flights by China Eastern Airlines. Chartered flights between Russia and Boracay continue to increase while air services agreement between Russia and the Philippines will be concluded by the end of the year. The Department of Tourism (DOT) has also endorsed several tourism projects, among which are two Chinese resort investments in Palawan with the total amount of P 994 million.

Visitor arrivals from ASEAN countries rose by 8.64 percent or 211,120, with tourists from Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand posting 32.07, 10.85 and 10.28 percent growth, respectively. Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines can attribute this upturn to increase in flight frequencies to said region.

The Scandinavian market consisting of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark posted a significant 12.98 percent growth over previous year’s volume of 30,091. This market has continued to surpass record growth rates registered by traditional sources. Tourists from France went up by 20.94 percent and the United Kingdom by 13.99 percent during the ten-month period as the Department of Tourism pursued the launch and promotion of diving, bird watching and adventure programs in these markets.

The United Arab Emirates, another potential market, showed a promising 32.07 percent hike with the maiden participation of the DOT in two major international travel fairs, namely the Arabian Travel Mart and Health Care Travel Exhibition in Dubai. Likewise, the DOT spearheaded the organization of the First Philippine Property Show in Dubai.