The success of the Visit the Philippines Year (VPY) 2015 campaign has led the Department of Tourism (DOT) to launch the Visit the Philippines Again (VPA) 2016.

This is part of its intensive marketing efforts to establish the Philippines both as a tourist and business destination.

“Visit the Philippines Again 2016 is going to be the most massive retail-focused effort the Philippines has ever made. We are negotiating with tour operators and travel agents to give incentives to returning visitors to the Philippines,” said DOT secretary Ramon R Jimenez, Jr.

Further accordingly to latest statistics available a total of 65,642 visitors from the GCC visited the Philippines between January and September 2015, resulting in a 12% increase compared to 2014 figures. Amongst those, the number from Saudi Arabia was highest at 40,453 travellers, which was an increase of 17% compared to 2014. Visitors from UAE were the next highest, followed by visitors from Kuwait.