Local tourists comprise 75% of arrivals in Dumaguete

DIVE DESTINATION. Apo Island in Dauin town, is among Negros Oriental's top tourist-drawers, being a favorite dive destination of many local and foreign visitors. (Photo by Judaline F. Partlow)

DUMAGUETE CITY – About 70 to 75 percent of the total tourist arrivals in Dumaguete City are local visitors and mostly Filipinos.

City Tourism Officer Jacqueline Veloso Antonio on Monday said it has been a trend since around 2014 that local tourists are far greater in number than foreigners, based on reports from hotels and resorts in this capital city.

“We ask them about occupancy and that means that this is only approximate and probably we have to add 25,000 to 30,000 as not all hotels religiously submit their data,” she pointed out.

“We only have data from 75 percent of the hotels in the city,” she said.

Available data from the City Tourism Office showed that total tourist arrivals in 2018 was pegged at 706,689, higher by about 14.75 percent compared to the previous year's 615,861.

However, according to Antonio, this does not include other tourists who are “unrecorded” to include those staying in Air BnB accommodations and smaller hotels.

Antonio attributes in part the spike in tourist arrivals in Dumaguete to those who come here for scuba diving in Dauin and other areas in Negros Oriental.

Meanwhile, Chinese, Korean, American, and Japanese nationals are the leading foreign tourists who visited and continue to visit Dumaguete City, she said. (PNA/By Mary Judaline Partlow )