2.1M tourists visit Central Visayas in first seven months of 2014

Tourists swimming with whale sharks in Cebu (Shutterstock) DISCLAIMER: It is not advisable to swim closely to whale sharks.

CEBU CITY — A total of 2,146,806 local and foreign tourists visited Central Visayas in the first seven months of this year, a Department of Tourism (DOT) 7 report said.

The report said the figure represents a 2.

13 percent increase in tourist arrivals in the region compared to the same period last year.

Local arrivals grew by 3.05 percent to 1,318,027, while foreign arrivals increased slightly by 0.95 percent or 822,046 compared to the same period in 2013.

Cebu welcomed 1,580,124 arrivals, up by 2.74 percent.

Local arrivals increased by 4.96 percent to 889,608 while foreign arrivals dropped by 0.22 percent from 686,332 to 684,832.

Korea remains the region’s top market despite its drop in arrivals by 4.35 percent or 308,159 from 322,162 arrivals in the same period in 2013.

Japan came second with a 6.65 percent growth in arrivals from 115,457 to 123,137.

Arrivals from Canada declined by 28.24 percent from 19,656 to 14,106 in the first seven months this year.

The rest of the region’s top source markets registered growth.

Arrivals from the US grew by 13.17 percent to 79,946 while China grew by 8.04 percent from 36,061 in 2013 to 38,959 this year.

Australia, on the other hand, logged 28,248 arrivals, up by 8.52 percent.

Arrivals from the United Kingdom posted the highest growth at 35.67 percent from 15,260 to 20,704.

Germany grew 6.22 percent, France at 5.81 percent and Singapore at 17.34 percent.