TOURIST arrivals could surge to near pre-pandemic levels this year amid a continued recovery for the country's hospitality industry, a Fitch group unit said.'We have a positive outlook for Philippines' tourist arrivals in 2024 and over the remainder of our medium-term forecast period to 2028,' BMI Country Risk & Industry Research said in a June 21 report.Tourist numbers could grow by 32.6 percent this year to 6.6 million, BMI said, up from 5.
South Korea was the largest source market with 458,619 arrivals or 26 percent of the total. This was followed by the United States and mainland China with 264,690 and 109,568 arrivals, respectively.Japan was fourth with 105,347, and Australia ranked fifth with 70,601.'We expect arrivals growth to be driven by key source markets in Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe,' BMI said.