The Philippines recorded just over 1.76 million foreign-tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2026, up 2.6-percent on the prior-year period, according to the latest data published by the country’s Department of Tourism.
Across all visitor segments, the country recorded nearly 1.89 million arrivals in the first three months of this year, including 126,091 entries by overseas Filipinos. The latter category – Philippine passport holders permanently living abroad – saw arrivals up 1.9 percent from a year earlier.
The Philippines is one of the few jurisdictions in Asia to have an extensive casino industry with unrestricted access for locals, as well as foreigners.
The U.S. was the Philippines’ largest-single supplier of foreign visitors in the first quarter, with 393,137 visitor arrivals in the January-March period, accounting for 20.8 percent of all visitor arrivals. The tally from that market was up 5.9-percent from the prior-year period.
The second-biggest source market for foreign tourists in the reporting period was South Korea, with 385,569 arrivals, about 20.4 percent of all arrivals.
The first-quarter tally of arrivals from South Korea was down 10.2 percent from a year earlier, indicating a continuation of a year-on-year decline in that cohort of visitors as observed in 2025, according to the tourism department’s data.
Japan rounded out the top three source markets fpr the January to March period, providing 144,509 arrivals, about 7.7 percent of all visitors. The figure was up 7.8 percent year-on-year.
The first-quarter tally of visitors from Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom also went up year-on-year by respectively 16.3 percent, 13.4 percent, and 3.2 percent.
Mainland China provided about 46,553 visitors in the first three months of 2026, down 19.8 percent from a year ago. The number of arrivals from Taiwan rose 26.3 percent year-on-year, to 66,818, accounting for nearly 3.5 percent of all arrivals.
Per official data, the Philippines received circa 5.94 million foreign tourists in 2025, a slight improvement on the nearly 5.93 million arrivals in the previous year.
