ON the matter of tourism, such as the number of world-class tourist spots, the variety of activities international travelers might want to do, and the delicious and even exotic dishes that we offer, the Philippines may well compete on the same level as our neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
While the Department of Tourism (DOT) may have the right reason to boast that PH tourism has recovered on a grand scale following the COVID-19 pandemic, still data suggests that we have a lot of catching up to do.
According to Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco, room demand is estimated at over 456,000 room keys by 2028.
Current supply of accommodation establishments is at 18,818 equivalent to 335,592 rooms based on compiled data of the Accommodation Capacity Survey of 2023-2024.
‘We are confident that with the continued cooperation and innovation by the
government and the private sector, our dream of getting a fair share of tourism revenues in the region can be achieved.’
Compared to our neighbors Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, we are pitifully lagging behind.
The Southeast Asian region had 3.12 million rooms led by Indonesia with 788,000 rooms. Vietnam and Thailand each registered over 700,000 rooms.
In contrast, the Philippines only has 212,373 rooms based on the list of hotels and similar establishments accredited by the Department of Tourism.
If it is any consolation, the Tourism secretary made no bones about the problem, describing it as it is in a forthright manner, during a recent convention with hotel owners.
“We have some catching up to do,” said Frasco, adding accommodation is one of two challenges that have been nagging the tourism industry for years, the other being access.
The tourism chief admitted that our global competitiveness is less than ideal, and that the Philippines lagged behind its competitors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in terms of availability of rooms as of year 2021.
It is plain that we need to scale up investments in new hotels, preferably in attractive but less-developed areas with great tourism potential.
Investments stood at P66.87 billion based on the list of registered projects from the Board of Investments in a span of five years, 2019 to 2023.
We find some rays of hope in the government’s push to privatize several key airports, beginning with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), to improve facilities and services offered not just to foreign tourists but also to regular Filipino travelers.
These tourists, however, need some comfortable places to stay once they arrive. And so the accommodation sector has a lot of work to do — work that has concomitant benefits in the form of revenues and job creation.
It was reported that the accommodation sector contributed about half of the P508 billion tourism investment under the Marcos administration. But the most tangible impact, Secretary Frasco said, is the livelihood provided to the 1.45 million workers in hotels and similar facilities.
We are confident that with the continued cooperation and innovation by the government and the private sector, our dream of getting a fair share of tourism revenues in the region can be achieved.
