TOURISM Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco underscored the importance of the lifting of existing travel advisories on Philippine destinations imposed by foreign governments including Japan to further boost tourist arrivals in the country.

This, during a courtesy meeting between Frasco and Philippine Ambassador to Japan Her Excellency (H.E.) Mylene J. Garcia-Albano on Tuesday at the DOT Central Office in Makati City.

The Secretary Frasco and Albano took up various areas of interest in the meeting, foremost is pertinent updates on the Philippine participation to the upcoming Osaka Kansai Japan Expo 2025 in collaboration with the Tourism Promotions Board and other agencies, an important global event happening from April 13 to October 13, 2025 in Yumeshima, Osaka.

Frasco also apprised the Ambassador of the DOT’s latest initiatives as far as further tapping into Japan’s tourist source market and facilitating easier travel exchange between the Philippines and Japan.

These include the DOT’s ongoing effort to strengthen its linkages with other national government agencies and local consular offices in lobbying for the lifting of existing travel advisories imposed upon Philippine destinations by foreign governments including Japan.

They also discussed the liberalization of requirements for Japanese travelers, particularly English as a Second Language (ESL) students, with the strong intent to expand the tourism product to more destinations, in addition to established ESL hubs such as Cebu and Baguio City.

Japan has consistently been a top source of tourist arrivals to the Philippines.

This year, Japan rose to the third spot, with 156,205 arrivals to the Philippines from January to July 2023.

Last year, it ranked sixth in terms of visitor arrivals to the Philippines, with 99,557 arrivals between February-December 2022.

This year, Japan rose to the third spot, with 156,205 arrivals to the Philippines from January to July 2023.

Albano on her part expressed support to the DOT’s strategies and vowed to promote its plans and programs including the Love the Philippines campaign, within the jurisdiction of the Philippine Embassy in Japan.

The rebound in tourism growth areas was second among first four contributors of Philippine growth drivers from January to June 2023, the DOT website show, apart from high employment rate, increase in investment registration activities, and students back in schools.

Last month, the DOT said the Philippines has reached its three million international visitor arrivals mark, recording a total of 3,000,079 international visitor arrivals from January 1 to July 19, 2023.

The country’s inbound tourism receipts from January 1 to June 30, 2023 have likewise climbed to P212,467,522,100.14 or 502.02 percent higher than the P35,292,495,457.14 tourism revenue generated from the same period last year, the DOT said.

Of the figures, 91.36 percent or 2,740,802 were foreign tourists, while the remaining 8.64 percent or 259,277 were overseas Filipinos.

South Korea delivered almost a quarter of the total number of international visitors for the Philippines with 741,658 (24.72 percent) followed by the United States of America (USA) in the second spot with 550,569 (18.35 percent); Australia with 146,062 (4.87 percent); Japan with 143,227 (4.77 percent); and Canada with 132,018 (4.40 percent) as the top 5 source markets of foreign arrivals.

Other visitors came from China with 129,077 (4.30 percent); Taiwan with 104,211 (3.47 percent); United Kingdom with 85,847 (2.86 percent); Singapore with 81,656 (2.72 percent); and Malaysia with 54,411 (1.81 percent).