Tourist arrivals drop in RP

Tourist arrivals drop in RP

MANILA (AFP): Tourist arrivals in the Philippines dropped 1.26 percent in the first eight months of the year, an official statement said Sunday.

The statement quoted a report by the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corp. which blamed the regional financial crisis and Philippine Airlines' (PAL) temporary closure in the second half for the fall.

However, tourist arrivals for the Christmas season were expected to rise 20 percent to offset the "drop in the number of tourists who visited the country at the height of the Philippine Airlines strike from June to August and its temporary closure in September."

The Philippines had achieved a five-year average growth rate of 12.8 percent in tourist arrivals before the regional economic crisis began, and a record 2.2 million tourists visited the Philippines in 1997, the year Asian currencies began to tumble, the report said.