Tourism Secretary Durano

Secretary Joseph Ace Durano of Department of Tourism. Philippine tourism registered an all time high of 2,623,084 international arrivals in 2005 or an increase of 14.5 percent from the previous year's 2,281,352.

Korea ranked second as the source of foreign tourists for the Philippines with 19.5 percent market share during the first eight months of this year, according to Ms Maricon Basco-Ebron, head of Team Korea.

"To sustain the momentum, the Philippine government will continue to pursue cooperative endeavors in tourism including the sending of Korean instructors to teach the Korean language to tourist front liners, the conduct of cross cultural learning programs for Korean executives based in the Philippines and the undertaking of joint ventures to develop tourist sites in the country" she told The Seoul Times in a telephone interview on Oct. 28,