The Department of Tourism has disputed a policy report ranking the Philippines as having the “lowest return on investment (ROI) on tourism in Southeast Asia,” and branded the analysis “flawed, misleading, and harmful.”
The report, authored by Eric Jurado and republished by an online magazine and a business broadsheet (not the MBI), used what the DOT described as a speculative and non-standard metric called “Return on Tourism Impact (RoTI).”
In a statement on Monday, September 8, the DOT said RoTI “is not recognized by multilateral institutions such as the UN Tourism, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), or the World Economic Forum (WEF).”
The agency said the article’s conclusions “grossly misrepresent” the country’s tourism performance and undermine the efforts of millions of Filipinos whose livelihoods depend on the sector.
“To malign this sector with baseless rankings is not just inaccurate —it is harmful,” the DOT said in its official statement.
“It is imperative that we correct the misrepresentation because it sends the wrong signal to investors, partners, and travelers at a time when the Philippines is competing fiercely in Southeast Asia for market share,” the DOT said.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2024 Tourism Satellite Accounts showed that the sector contributed P2.35 trillion in direct gross value, up 11.2 percent from 2023, and equivalent to 8.9 percent of gross domestic product.
Tourism also generated P699.98 billion in international visitor receipts and P3.86 trillion in combined domestic and foreign tourism spending, PSA data showed.
The sector sustained 6.75 million direct jobs and provided indirect livelihoods to as many as 16 million Filipinos, the PSA said.
The tourism-related investments in 2024 were valued at around P590 billion, based on the PSA’s Tourism Gross Fixed Capital Formation data.
The DOT criticized Jurado’s methodology, saying the report compared a multi-year cumulative investment figure of US$23 billion with a single-year tourism revenue estimate of US$13 billion, resulting in a “meaningless ratio.”
The state agency also flagged the exclusion of domestic tourism, which alone generated P3.1 trillion in 2024.
Excluding this figure, DOT said, “grossly understates tourism’s true returns and distorts any purported ROI calculation.”
Citing its own data, the DOT said every peso invested in tourism generated P5.50 in returns in 2024, equivalent to a benefit-cost ratio of 5.5 and an ROI of 4.5 or a 450 percent return beyond cost recovery.
“Tourism is therefore a high-yield engine of jobs, livelihoods, and national growth —not the laggard the report portrays,” the agency said, urging journalists and researchers to rely on official data.
“Tourism is a force for good, a source of pride, hope, and livelihood for our people. Attempts to erase these achievements with fabricated or distorted numbers affect the millions of Filipinos whose lives depend on this industry. The Filipino people deserve better,” the DOT said. (PNA)
