The tourism industry is yet to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels, but is poised for sustained growth.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in a report said gross value-added (GVA) of tourism industries in 2022 amounted to P1.88 trillion, an increase of 80 percent from P1 trillion in 2021.
This, however, is lower by 42 percent than pre-COVID level of P3.27 trillion in 2019.
The GVA is sum of all goods and services from establishments that are considered tourism industries, regardless of whether they serve tourists or not
Tourism direct GVA (TDGVA) as measured by its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) stood at P1.38 trillion in 2022, an increase of 37 percent from P1 trillion in 2021 or 6.2 percent to the GDP.
That amount is 44 percent lower than the P2.48 trillion TDGVA in 2019. Contribution was also lower than the 12.7 percent of GDP for that year.
Employment in tourism identified industries estimated at 5.35 million in 2022 nearly matches pre-pandemic of 5.7 million in 2019.
Last year’s employment is higher by 9.3 percent than the 4.9 million in 2021.
The share of employment in tourism industries to the country’s total employment is at 11.4 percent, slightly higher than the 11.1 percent in 2021.
In 2019, tourism accounted for 13.5 percent of total employment.
Internal tourism expenditure – combined inbound and domestic tourism expenditure – surged 131 percent to P1.87 trillion in 2022 from the P810 billion in 2021.
Comparing to pre-pandemic, that is 49 percent short of 2019 internal tourism expenditure of P.37 trillion.
The PSA data showed inbound tourism expenditure posted the highest growth among the different forms of tourism expenditure, registering P368.67 billion last year compared with P27.63 billion in 2021, or a growth rate of 1,234.2 percent.
Inbound tourism expenditure, which refers to the expenditure of non-resident visitors or those foreign and Filipinos permanently residing abroad, contributed 5.9 percent to the
country’s total exports in 2022, compared to 0.6 percent share in 2021.
Inbound tourism expenditure in 2019 stood at P549 billion.
Domestic tourism expenditure in 2022 nearly doubled to P1.5 trillion from the P782.57 billion in 2021. That number is just half of the domestic tourism expenditure recorded in 2019 of P3.1 trillion.
Domestic tourism expenditure, or expenditure of resident visitors within the Philippines either during domestic trips or as part of their international travel, contributed 9 percent to the household final consumption expenditure.
Outbound tourism expenditure stood at P189 billion last year, an increase of 89 percent from P100 billion in 2021. Compared to 2019 of P341.6 billion, that amount is 45 percent less.
Christina Garcia Frasco, DOT secretary, said the agency vows to sustain last year’s gains through its seven-point agenda
“One of our objectives is the maximization of domestic tourism as it has proven a very strong and reliable contributor to the economy. Through the Philippine Experience Program, our regional expos, fairs, and the like, we intend to generate tourism opportunities by giving our travel and tourism stakeholders opportunities to immerse themselves in other destinations and regions and to come up with tour packages that they can dovetail with their offerings,” Frasco said.
Apart from continuing existing tourism circuits in regions across the country, the DOT also launched the Philippine Experience: Heritage, Culture and Arts Caravans, a nationwide program across all regions of the country highlighting key, emerging and lesser-known destinations, and featuring various tourism products such as pilgrimage tourism, heritage tourism, food tourism, wellness, and arts and local products of communities and micro, small and medium enterprises. Irma Isip
