Flights to the Philippines

International visitor arrivals grew by 15.85 percent year-on-year in the first ten months of the year, according to the Department of Tourism (DOT).  Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said this put the country on track of achieving its 3.3 millionth visitor arrival target for the year.

“Growth in some markets boosted the performance vis-a-vis last year’s.  We are looking at roughly an additional 455,000 tourists with November and December as traditional peak months can deliver,” said Secretary Lim.

Preliminary international visitor arrivals figures for Asia and the Pacific in October and November 2010 showed year-on-year growth of 9 percent and 8 percent, respectively, according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

Growth momentum remained strong heading into the last month of the year and a full-year arrivals gain of 10 to 11 percent was expected for the region in 2010, well above the global figures of 6 to 7 percent growth.

Meanwhile, global air passenger traffic posted an 8.2 percent year-on-year growth in November 2010, according to the Geneva-based International Air Transport Association (IATA).