Cebu City’s tourism sector continues to grow as it was named among the top city destinations around the world in 2019 by global market research firm Euromonitor.
In its Top 100 City Destinations report, Euromonitor ranked Cebu 77th on the list, 10 spots higher from the year before.?It added that Cebu City climbed 52 spots in the rankings between 2013 and 2018 in Euromonitor’s city arrivals research, which covers 400 cities?
According to the report, Cebu international arrivals grew 24.9 percent in 2018 to 2.8 million from 2.2 million in 2017. Euromonitor projects this to have grown 26.2 percent in 2019 to 3.5 million international arrivals.
Latest data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) show that Cebu is the country’s second largest gateway of air arrivals, second to Manila, as it welcomed 131,217 international arrivals in October 2019 alone. The report said global inbound arrivals are expected to grow by 4.2 percent to 1.5 billion trips in 2019, with the top 100 cities comprising nearly 47 percent of global arrivals and growing by 6.2 percent in the same period.
“The top 100 cities continuously outperform the growth in world arrivals as tourism becomes a catalyst for innovation as well as a driver of socio-economic progress,” Euromonitor said.?“This has led to smart city developments, encouraged by governments’ long-term tourism strategies and significantly increased investment in travel and tourism over recent years,” it added.
Euromonitor pointed out that Asia continues to outpace other regions, as it accounts for 43 of the top 100 cities, an increase from the 34 cities in 2013.
Hong Kong remained the top city destination on the list, despite the political unrest and protests which led to a sharp decline in the number of visitor arrivals in 2019. It is joined by other Asian cities in the top five such as Bangkok, Macau and Singapore. Euromonitor cited that the growth of the Chinese outbound market has led many countries to target travelers through Chinese social media platforms such as WeChat, as well as working closely with local travel intermediaries.
China remains the second top source market of foreign arrivals in the Philippines, with a total of 1.5 million arrivals from January to October 2019, a 41.13 percent rise compared to 2018.
MNLToday.ph believes that after the Covid 2019 pandemic situations, tourism in the Philippines and other countries will flourish as travellers will have that itch to visit various places considering the global travel and flight ban.
With additional report: The Philippine Star, Catherine Talavera
Photo Sources: unsplash-Zany Jadraque, coconut.co, smitabhattacharya.com
