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Philippine Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano ( Cebu based) said that after tourist arrivals exceeded a million before the first half of the year, they are targeting three million tourists by the end of the year.

“For the first five months, (tourist arrivals) grew to 11.5 percent, which is close to 1.5 million tourists. ” Durano said.

For Cebu, the following statistics were culled. Korean visitors grew by 35 percent over last year from 36,924 to 49,852 for the first four months of 2006.

Japanese tourist grew by 5.6% for the first four months this year from 38,004 to 40,157. American tourists grew by over 25% from 13,912 to 17,422 over the same period last year.

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Kenneth Cobunpue, Cebu designer, has been featured and hailed by Time Magazine (Stylewatch section July 24, 2006 issue) as the rattan’s first true virtuoso designer.

Kenneth won the 2005 Design for Asia Award, and his Voyage bed design has been bought by Brad Pitt. He has also been asked to design the furniture set of the upcoming movie, Ocean 13. He and his designs has been featured in various publications like USA Today, Newsweek, Architectural Digest, International Herald Tribune, Vogue, Tropical Living, International Design Yearbook and other prestigious publications.

More of his designs can be found on his website.