Growth of Negros Oriental Tourist Arrivals
Records can prove the constant increase of tourist arrivals here in Negros Oriental. For the past three years (2014, 2015, 2016) Negros Oriental has received over 690,000 tourist arrivals.
Tourist Arrivals in Negros Oriental
During the recent meeting of the Regional Association of Development Information Officers (RADIO-7) Convention, the Negros Oriental Provincial Senior Tourism Officer Myla Mae Abellana showed the data that shows the continuous and constant increase of tourist arrivals in Negros Oriental. The data plot increases 519,429 in the year 2014, 625,295 in the year 2015 and 696,403 in the year 2016.
An increase of about 20.23% can be noted from the year 2014-2015 alone, and another approx. 11.37% increase from the year 2015-2016.
Americans and Chinese Tourist
Both the domestic and the foreign tourists’ arrivals showed a great increase in their numbers. In the past three years, domestic tourists have shown an increase with 444,317 in 2014; 517,016 in 2015; 554,550 in the year 2016.
The nationality who made a comeback at the top 10 Foreign Markets of Negros Oriental are the Chinese. Although the American tourists came more in the year 2003-2014, the Chinese still made its way to overcome their number from 3,196 in 2012 to 57,419 in 2016.
“We were surprised that the Chinese overtook the Americans but we learned that sometime in November 2014 a Chinese blogger came to the province. He went around the province and when he went back to China, he blogged about his trip and that’s when it started. By January, Chinese tourists started arriving here on their own,” said Provincial Senior Tourism Officer Myla Mae Abellana.
With the incoming celebration of the Buglasan Festival 2017, even a greater increase of tourist arrivals is to be expected.
