THE Department of Tourism (DOT) is poised to review its National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) given its low numbers for 2024.
“The crafting of any plan takes into consideration various factors at the time that the plan was drafted, and since then, many challenges have arisen, “ said Christina Frasco, DOT secretary in an interview late Tuesday.
Frasco said these challenges include inflationary pressures, geopolitical issues, delays in the visa liberalization policy of the country vis a vis its Asean neighbors.
Frasco said climate related disasters this year have gravely affected some destinations.
“(There are) many other headwinds over which the Department of Tourism has absolutely no control. And so it is incumbent upon us to take stock of these factors in terms of conducting a midterm review next year for the NTDP,” Frasco said.
The NTDP outlines key targets that guide the development and growth of the tourism sector over the next five years.
But Frasco said the DOT has been relentless in pursuing the objectives identified under the plan in terms of expanding tourism infrastructure with partner government agencies, increasing connectivity, increasing accommodation, introducing digitalization, focusing on empowering human capital development, diversifying tourism portfolio and introducing a multi dimensional experiential travel in the country.
“For me, while it is traditional to look at the number of people arriving into the country, we would invite an expanded view to look at the tourism numbers that matter to the economy, that matter to the lives of the Filipino people,” Frasco said, adding visitor receipts are a better measure over the number of arrivals.
Frasco said the country has earned P712 billion in estimated visitor receipts from January to December 15, representing a 119 percent recovery rate from 2019 numbers. The Philippines registered a total of 5.65 million international visitor arrivals as of December 17, falling short of the 7.7-million target for the year.
