Philippine tourism, according to secretary Ace Durano, is a virtuous cycle that generates jobs for 3.5 million and earns over $3.4 billion.

He said he is satisfied with the goal of 3 million visitors for the year, claiming it is the number the country can accommodate.

For undersecretary Eduardo Jarque, everything is turning out right for the industry—more investments, good economic growth, good news.

Jarque is also happy that tourism drive under Durano has zeroed in on specific and viable markets.

Pampering the bread and butter market and developing those with big potential.

Durano, in a talk before the members of the Manila Overseas Press Club, said that his priority upon assuming office was to determine the right market to which they should promote the country.

"Much of the tourism efforts of past administrations were focused solely on increasing tourist arrivals without knowing the target market," Durano said.

"For the past three years, we have been doing a series of calibrated actions," Durano added.

Durano’s team divided the existing markets into four—Tactical / Momentum Markets, or markets that can quickly generate increased arrivals; Core Markets, or the markets that deliver the "bread & butter" and where the bulk of new investments come from; Investment / Turnaround Markets, or markets that the country may invest ahead of return; and the Maintenance Markets, or markets that are on the "radar", or as Durano said: "activity only to occur if there is spare capacity".

The DOT then followed specific plans for each of the markets:

—Continue to focus bulk of resources and best people on existing core markets (China, Japan, Korea, US Balikbayan);

—Increase investment and focus on Tactical/momentum markets (Australia, Russia, Germany, US/Canada);

—Maintain investment in turnaround markets (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore) focusing efforts on addressing key barriers to growth;

—Monitor maintenance markets (UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Denmark) on an annual basis to test for low-hanging fruit.

"The intention was to focus on lower volume of tourists but higher yield in terms of receipts," Durano said.

And the result?

Durano said that over the past three years, visitor arrivals to the Philippines grew at an average of 14 percent per year, greater than the growth rates registered by Asean countries and surpassing the projected 7 percent increase of tourist traffic in the Asia-Pacific region by the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Visitor receipts grew at an average of 32.67 percent for the last three years reflecting industry’s position as among the dollar earners of the economy.

For 2006, Durano said tourists spent a total of $3.4 billion.

In 2006, DOT endorsed, for various incentives, to concerned government agencies a total of P93.8 billion worth of new investments. The bulk of investments were in the tourism estates and accommodations sector.

In 2006, travel and tourism contributed an estimated 3.49 million jobs across the economy strengthening its position as among the major employment generator of the country.

With the continued growth in visitor traffic, international airlines flying to the country are experiencing high load factor of more than 70 percent

The ccupancy rate of hotels in Metro Manila also grew at an average of 6 percent, with the de luxe and first class hotels garnering the lion’s share, achieving more that 70 percent occupancy.

When asked whether the 3-million marks is something to be proud of, Durano said that he is "happy with the 3 million because that’s all what we can accommodate."

"We do not need the whole world to come to the Philippines. Because we can’t accommodate everyone. As our capacity grows, then we can promote more, so more can come."

"It’s a virtuous cycle," Durano said.

Latest figures from the DOT showed that visitor arrivals for the first nine months of 2007 aggregated to 2.27 million , registering an 8.6 percent increase over last year’s arrivals of 2.08 million.

Visitor arrivals for the month of September alone reached 212,415 recording a double-digit increase of 10.3 percent compared to the arrivals of 192,661 covering the same month in 2006.

The youngest cabinet member in the Arroyo administration, Durano’s battlecry for his tourism campaign was aptly dubbed "Wow! Philippines"—an attempt to show the world that there is ‘more than meets the eye’ in the country in terms of investment opportunities, tourist attractions and events and festivities.

And latest statistics showed that the results were more than wow.

For this year, consistent positive growth rates in visitor arrivals were recorded from January to September with the month of July providing the biggest volume of 281,032 while the months of May and July recorded the highest growth of 18.1 percent each.

For the month of September. the Korean market led all other markets as it contributed the biggest arrivals of 43,061 during the month.