An enormous influx of tourists and travelers still coming to the region despite the global recession. Regional Development Council in the recent Council Meeting noted that a large bulk of foreign arrivals visiting were balikbayan homing for the holidays and the festivals in the first quarter of the year. Koreans still remain to be on top, comprising more than one-fourth of the total foreign visitors in the region. Japanese ranked next with about 18%. In domestic travel, the market showed a slow-down from its previous year’s high double-digit performance of 12.5% in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 8.1% in 2008. In Bohol, from 54,915 tourists in 2006, it went up to 62.033 in 2007 and then rose to 71,366 to an annual average of 15.05%. Industry players in the region also confirmed the growth, however lower than the previous year, says the Department of Tourism. The increase made occupancy rates in hotels to remained high, despite clear close-cutting measures in the light of the crisis. Chinese tourists, perhaps owing to the travel campaigns made by local officials to China have doubled their arrivals since fourth quarter of 2007. The vibrant status can be gleaned from visitor arrival data in the fourth quarter of 2008 which exceeded last year’s level by 9.6%, the RDC briefing notes reveal.
