BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Department of Tourism (DOT-CAR) reported that tourist arrivals in the country’s Summer Capital reached over 1.56 million in 2024 registering an increase from the 1.31 million arrivals recorded in 2023.
DOT-CAR regional director Jovita Ganongan said that Baguio’s tourist arrivals last year accounted for more than 75 percent of the recorded more than 1.98 million arrivals in the region last year.
Based on the data obtained from the DOT-CAR, tourist arrivals in Mountain Province came in a far second with 151,183 while arrivals in Kalinga settled for third with 132,771.
Benguet had 67,428 tourist arrivals followed by Ifugao – 481 arrivals, Apayao – 21,611 arrivals and Abra – 2,225 arrivals.
The DOT-CAR official noted that tourist arrivals in the region last year registered a 17.71 percent increase compared to the more than 1.683 tourist arrivals in the previous years.
According to her, all the provinces recorded significant increases in both foreign and domestic tourist arrivals that contributed in the infusion of some PhP10.7 billion in the region’s economy.
Under the updated data on the spending of visitors of the tourism department, each foreign visitor spends around PhP7,000 daily in their destination while a domestic tourist spends approximately PhP4,000 daily.
She pointed out that the region is targeting the international market to help in significantly increasing foreign tourist arrivals in the different tourist destinations to contribute further enhance the local economy.
Last year, foreign tourist arrivals in the region was only more than two percent of the total tourist arrivals that had been reported while domestic tourist arrivals accounted for more than 97 percent. By Dexter A. See
