Negros Occidental tourist receipts for 2023 totaled P6 billion and the growth in overnight tourist arrivals was 36 percent compared to 2022, Provincial Tourism Officer Cheryl Decena said Monday, February 5.
The tourism earnings in 2022 totaled P5 billion, she said.
The Negros Occidental tourism industry has fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and is getting stronger, she said.
There were 692,190 overnight tourists arrivals in Negros Occidental in 2023 based on only 90 percent of the reports so far, compared to the 510,022 in 2022, Decena added.
There were 2 million day visitors reported in 2023 with only 75 percent of the data in, compared to 1.7 million last year, she said.
The top contributing LGUs in terms of arrivals were Sipalay, San Carlos, Kabankalan, Silay, Cadiz and Talisay, Decena said.
The top foreign tourists were from the United States, Korea, Germany, Canada, Australia, China and Japan, she added.*