Foreign tourist arrivals increasing in Boracay

Foreign nationals fill the gap of tourists coming to this resort island as the country is hands full helping the victims of typhoon 'Yolanda.'

Tim Ticar of the Department of Tourism-Boracay said that Chinese nationals had already overtaken the South Koreans, the former leading foreign visitors for this month of November.

The DoT however admitted that Boracay experienced low turn out of tourists this year compared to the same period last year.

DoT figures revealed that in November 2012, Boracay registered 86,090 foreign and local tourists. This year's November data indicate that it has only reached 64, 092.

"We still have few days left before the month of November ends and we hope to gather more tourists to surpass that of last year's figure," Ticar said.

Of the current number, 11, 298 of them were Chinese tourists while the Koreans reached 10, 685.

"We have a 16-percent upset for this month for our Boracay tourism industry but what is important is our tourism is still healthy," said Ticar.

Some resorts had also reported booking cancellations because of the onslaught of typhoon 'Yolanda,' he said.