By Josephine G. Aguillo
Miss Universe Pia Alonzo-Wurtzbach visits the new Department of Tourism Office: Miss Universe Pia Alonzo-Wurtzbach receives a token of appreciation from Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Wanda Corazon Teo during the former’s visit at the new DOT Headquarters along Sen. Gil Puyat Ave. in Makati City on Monday (July 18, 2016). In a press conference after their meeting, Secretary Teo said she is grateful for the full support the reigning Miss Universe is giving to DOT’s efforts to host the upcoming Miss Universe contest in the country. “We are really hopeful that President Rodrigo R. Duterte will grant our request, especially now that this undertaking would practically entail no expense on the part of government. More importantly, it would give a big boost to businesses and livelihood of millions of people, in line with our ‘shared tourism’ program,” the DOT Chief said. (PNA photo by Jess M. Escaros Jr.)
MANILA (PNA) – The alleged extrajudicial killing (EJK) in the Philippines has no effect on the country’s inbound tourism, says Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Wanda Teo.
“Tourists still come to the Philippines,” said Teo.Teo, who has been going out of the country to attract the new market, said that many tourists from France and Thailand would visit in a few months despite the negative publicity the country had been getting from drug-related killings.
“In fact, ambassadors with their families will be coming to the Philippines in November, 400 from the US and 100 from Canada,” Teo added.
Teo is confident that the Philippines would meet its target of six million tourist arrivals for this year.“I think it will be more than six million at the end of the year,” she said.
Based on the data from DOT, inbound visitors for July 2016 reached 560,872 arrivals. Where Korea remained the top spending market with estimated receipts of Php of 6.03 billion.
U.S.A followed with estimated receipts of Php 3.09 billion. Japan came third with an estimated expenditure of Php 1.45 billion, followed by Taiwan with an expenditure of Php 1.3 billion and China with Php 1.10 billion.