September 3, 2025
MANILA – Tourist arrivals from South Korea—the country’s top source of foreign arrivals dropped not only in the Philippines but also in other Asean countries, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said on Tuesday.
Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco clarified this during the House committee on appropriations hearing when asked by Galing sa Puso (GP) party-list Rep. Jan Rurik Padiernos if indeed tourist arrivals in the country fell by 19 percent in the first five months of this year.
“Is it really more dangerous now in the Philippines compared to our neighboring countries like Thailand or Malaysia, and how are we addressing these issues?” Padiernos said.
Frasco explained that “decline is not isolated to the Philippines,” noting that the country has so far received over 880,000 South Korean visitors as of September 1.
“There have also been declines in South Korean arrivals to Thailand at a negative 17 percent, Singapore at negative 2 percent, Cambodia at negative 7 percent, and Vietnam at negative 2 percent, so the trend of lessening Korean arrivals is not isolated to the Philippines but is spread out across the Asean,” she pointed out.
To address this, Frasco said they immediately coordinated with law enforcers whenever there are reported incidents involving South Korean nationals to express DOT’s concerns and to request intervention.
“I understand that the result of these discussions has been that the Philippine National Police has deployed an increased number of police specific to the National Capital Region, including the areas where the crimes had transpired,” the DOT chief revealed.
Frasco also mentioned DOT’s proposal to form a national task force on tourist safety and the agency’s coordination with the South Korean embassy and community.
Aside from this, she disclosed that they are also training tourist police, who will be deployed in the country’s tourist destinations.
To date, Frasco said over 8,000 police personnel have been trained by the DOT under one of its programs.
