Durano stressed the role of tourism in poverty alleviation and job creation. He said the role of the DOT was to create and facilitate partnerships with the government agencies and the private sector to be able to push through with the tourism development.

“Today, there is a lot of work to do to reach the department’s target. The DOT shall enforce short and medium term programs to make it possible. We cannot afford to waste the government’s meager funds for mass marketing campaigns that do not really identify the target sectors,” the DOT chief said.

Based on Bureau of Immigration data from August 1 to August 31, visitor arrivals have already reached 1,491,676 with a growth rate of 28.4 percent from the 1,161,583 last year. The U.S., Japan and Korea continue to dominate the country’s tourist arrivals.

The tourism industry has remarkably achieved high increases in visitor arrivals during the first seven months of 2004.

From the period January to July, visitor arrivals increased by 30.4 percent for 1.34 million compared to the same period a year ago. The influx of the tourist came during the months of January and July with 207,755 and 200,087 arrivals respectively. However, highest increase in arrivals was posted in May at 66.6 percent.

Visitor receipts increased by 33.48 percent for US$813.53 from January to May. The month of March posted the highest increase in visitor receipts at 56.81 percent compared to the same month last year.

The DOT is confident that should the increase in visitor receipts continue throughout the year, the visitor receipts target of US$2.02 billion this year will be achieved.