Capital investments infused in tourism reached P663 billion in 2019, an increase of 6 percent from P625.7 billion in 2018.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) yesterday released two new indicators in tracking the Tourism Satellite Account (PTSA): the tourism gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) or the investments put in place by private sector in the industry and the tourism capital collective consumption defined as government sending in tourism mostly in the form of infrastructure or capital expenditures by government.
In an online presentation of the 2019 PTSA, assistant national statistician Vivian Ilarina said tourism gross fixed capital formation amounted to P569.1 billion in 2019, higher by 3.6 percent compared with 2018 level of P549.5 billion.
Ilarina said this places the share of tourism capital from private sector at 10.7 percent of total gross fixed capital formation in the economy in 2019.
From 2012 to 2019, GFCG n tourism grew at an average of 19.3 percent.
That growth is five times more than the growth of fixed capital poured in by government.
But tourism collective consumption in 2019 though much smaller in size – or just 16 percent – versus investments of private sector grew much faster.
Government investments in tourism amounted P94.1 billion last year, an increase of by 23.5 percent from 2018 level of 76.2 billion Ilarina said the average growth rate was 4.6 percent between 2012 and 2019.
In 2019, the share of tourism collective consumption to government final consumption expenditure was 3.8 percent
Tourism investments made by the tourism industries are in cruise ships, sightseeing buses, hotel facilities, convention centers, etc. while non-tourism-specific fixed assets include, computer system of hotel or travel agency, hotel laundry facilities, etc. Some examples of government expenditures in tourism are legislation and regulation on receiving and serving of visitors, development of tourism policies and tourism promotion of the country or specific region, and provision of support to specific tourism-oriented investments.
Tourism contributed 12.7 percent to the economy in 2019. The PTSA showed in 2019, the gross value-added of tourism industries – the sum of all gross value added from establishments that are considered tourism industries, regardless of whether they serve tourists or not – grew by 11 percent.
Ilarina said 14 of 100 Filipinos workers are employed by the tourism sector.
In 2019, the employed persons in tourism industries was registered at 5.7 million, which was higher by 6.5 percent than the 5.4 million individuals posted in the previous year. It contributed 13.5 percent to the total employment of the country.
