CHENNAI: Though islands are dime a dozen in Andamans and Nicobar, the group of islands comprising over 7,000 in the southeast Asian country of Philippines, appear to lure Indians by thousands.

Over 19,000 Indians have visited Philippines during the first two months this year and almost one lakh had visited that country during 2016.

The Philippines has witnessed a growth of 28 % in Indian tourist arrivals during January-February, 2017, compared to the same period last year, as per the official data released by the Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippines.

As a result India has now jumped to the 11th rank among the top source markets for the island nation.

During 2016, more than 90,000 Indian tourists visited the Philippines and recorded 21.27 % of annual growth.

In 2017, the DOT Philippines will be more focused on consumers as well as corporate to promote this beautiful archipelago as a leisure, luxury, wedding and MICE destinations.

“We want to leverage on our tourism product offerings and attract the Indian traveller to soon achieve our target of 1,00,000 tourist arrivals to the Philippines,” says SanJeet, Tourism Attaché, Philippines Tourism Marketing Office India.

“Over the years, we have seen a steady growth in Indian tourists to the Philippines and are confident that this trend will continue. We are extremely delighted that the year 2017 is giving us a good start and our continued efforts in targeting the Indian holiday planners through aggressive marketing initiatives will yield even better results by the year end” he added.