PH fails to meet tourism target as Chinese arrivals decline

Metro Manila, Philippines—The Department of Tourism missed its target for international visitors in 2024 as the number of Chinese tourists visiting the country significantly dropped due to geopolitics and suspension of e-visas.

In an interview with state-run PTV on Friday, Jan. 10, Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said the government projected 7.7 million foreign arrivals for 2024, but the Department of Tourism (DOT) only recorded 5.9 million.

"Nobody could have anticipated that geopolitics would ultimately seep into arrivals from China considering that the electronic visas for the Chinese market were suspended and this is in stark contrast to the policies of our ASEAN neighbors kung saan, either hindi na kailangan ng visa from China, Chinese visitors or puwede iyong visas on arrival," said Frasco.

The tourism chief added that the country did not meet its projected number of Chinese tourist arrivals.

"Napakalaking challenge nito kasi originally iyong prinoject namin ay upwards to two million iyong dadating na Chinese tourists, iyong dumating lang by the end of 2024 was a little over 300,000. So, this negative recovery has greatly impacted our ability to reach the targeted projections," said Frasco.

[Translation: This is a big challenge because we projected up to two million Chinese tourists but only a little over 300,000 arrived by the end of 2024. So, this negative recovery has greatly impacted our ability to reach the targeted projections]

She also mentioned the drop in budget promotions last year as also one of the factors for the low turnout.

Frasco did not directly respond on whether the issue with the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) was among the factors in the drop of Chinese tourists.

"The clear difference between the Chinese arrivals in the pandemic which exceeded one million and the Chinese arrivals as of 2024 which is a little over 300,000 would show that the barriers to entry into the Philippines including and chiefly the suspension of the electronic visa gravely affected the Chinese market for the Philippines," she said.

Asked if there's an alternative for the Chinese market, the DOT chief said they will work to increase tourist arrivals from South Korea, United States and Japan.