The number of foreign visitor arrivals to the Philippines grew by 2.64% in the first three months of 2026, with strong growth from most of its key source markets offsetting a decline in visitation from South Korea and mainland China.
According to latest data from the Department of Tourism, there were a total of 1.76 million arrivals from January to March, including a high of 650,873 in January.
The United States has grown to become the Philippines’ number one source market through Q1, with visitor arrivals rising 5.89% year-on-year to 393,137. As a result, South Korea slipped to second with 385,589 arrivals – down 10.17% while China, now ranked eighth, fell 19.77% compared to the same period last year with 46,553.
For the month of March, total foreign visitor arrivals grew 0.8% year-on-year to 514,423, although arrivals from South Korea and China continued to show significant decline. Arrivals from South Korea dropped 16.0% year-on-year to 92,222 while those from mainland China were down 20.7% to 13,663.
Total visitor arrivals to the Philippines in 1Q26, including overseas Filipinos, grew by 2.59% to 1,838,969.
As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, the Philippines welcomed a total of 5,940,975 foreign visitors in 2025 – up 0.27% year-on-year. The DOT has since unveiled plans to ramp up its marketing efforts in South Korea from which arrivals fell 18.5% last year to 1,346,301.
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