Scandinavia countries reflected double-digit growth rates namely: Finland with 49.7% growth (967 arrivals), Sweden with 22.4% growth (5,031 arrivals) and Norway with 33.3% growth (4,471 arrivals) while Denmark with 4,240 arrivals recorded a growth of 5.3%.
Ten (10) cruise ships arrived from January to March with six (6) ships disembarking in Manila South Harbor with a total of 7,103 visitors while the remaining cruise disembarked in Subic, Cebu and Davao with visitors totaling 1,321.
It shared 20.4% to total inbound traffic and registered a growth of 2.0% vis-a-vis its arrivals of 171,716 in 2007. Visitors from U.S. constituted the second biggest arrivals, numbering 166,128 and shared 19.4% to total visitor volume.
This market grew by 6.3% compared to its contribution of 156,226 a year ago.
The considerable turnout of visitors from January-March 2008 totaling 858,244 earned for the country some US$ 1.022 billion in tourist spend.
In pursuit of expanding tourist spend, a Shopping Festival and Second Home Destination Program will be launched in September and October, respectively.