"Foreign arrivals in key destinations increased 6 percent in the first half of the year despite a decrease of 6 percent in inbound visitors into East Asia and the Pacific," Tourism Secretary Ace Durano said in his semestral report.

While the DOT did not release the complete international visitor arrivals data in Metro Manila for the period, there was a decline of about 5 to 7 percent in arrivals from other countries this year, according to other government offices. Data from the Bureau of Immigration show that a total of 1.22 million foreigners arrived in the country from January to May 2009, compared to 1.31 million who arrived in the same period last year.

Puerto Princesa Subterranean River in Palawan has successfully landed on the top 77 nominees on the New 7 Wonders of Nature (N7WN) international poll. Organizers of the N7WN reported that the top 77 were chosen out of the 261 contenders, after the second phase of the worldwide voting ended in July 7, 2009.

“The success of this campaign wouldn’t have been possible without the Filipinos’ worldwide support.  We are grateful to the people who voted and heeded our call to promote one of our national treasures,” said Tourism Secretary Ace Durano.

According to the N7WN report, from the top 77 nominees, only 28 Official Finalists will be chosen by the N7WN’s Panel of Experts.  The announcement of the 28 selected finalists will be made in Zurich at the New7Wonders Foundation headquarters on July 21, 2009 at 12.07 GMT.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has ranked the Philippines as 87th among 124 countries in the first ever Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index. Out of the possible perfect score of 7.0, it received 3.8.