CEBU CITY – Apart from the Koreans, Japanese and the Americans – Cebu’s top foreign market arrivals – the local tourism industry has observed growth in visitors from new markets that are now beginning to discover the province’s tourism potentials.

Data from the Department of Tourism (DoT) 7 revealed that from January to June this year, Cebu registered a growth in new tourist markets, including China (85.45 percent), Hong Kong (12.84 percent), Russia (52.86 percent), Vietnam (91.78 percent), India (38.06 percent) and Denmark (23.66 percent), among others.

Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries collectively posted a 297.60 percent growth or from 2,004 visitors in the first half of 2008 to 7,968 visitors in the same period this year. In an interview with Manila Bulletin Monday, Tourism Secretary Ace Durano said the total volume of tourists going to Cebu was up by 2.3 percent in the first semester of 2009. "We achieved this despite a slowdown of Cebu's traditional international markets by maximizing growth in arrivals from those least affected by the crisis like Russia and China and also by focusing on the domestic market which resulted in a six percent increase in domestic travel," Durano's text message read.

“Cebu is fast opening up to the rest of the world. It is because the province has now more to offer in terms of tourism packages,” added Tourism Undersecretary Phineas Alburo in a separate interview.

According to Alburo, while Cebu used to be popular for its Magellan’s Cross and beach resorts, the tourism industry here has become more dynamic with new tour packages that include adventure tourism, sports tourism, shopping venues, more town festivals as seen during the Provincial Government-led Suroy-Suroy Sugbo, as well as more beach resort destinations in the northern and southern areas, apart from Mactan Island.

“These new activities encourage more foreigners, not from only the usual markets we get, but also those emerging markets that the DoT has tapped, especially China, India, Russia, and the Middle East,” said Alburo.

He said tourist arrivals from these new markets help “balance out” the decrease in figures coming from the top three travel markets.

In the same period of this year, the number of visitors to Cebu from Korea, Japan and the United States showed a decline, records from the DoT 7 showed.

The Koreans made up 27.83 percent of Cebu’s tourist market, followed by the Japanese at 21.38 percent and the Americans at 9.90 percent.