PRIVATE sector investments in the tourism sector grew by 3.6 percent to P569.1 billion in 2019, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
In a webinar to present the latest Philippine Tourism Satellite Accounts, PSA assistant national statistician Vivian R. Ilarina said the Tourism Gross Capital Formation for 2019 represented 10.7 percent of total private sector investment for that year. From 2010 to 2019, private sector investment in the tourism sector grew by an average of 19.3 percent.
On the other hand, government investment like in tourism infrastructure, or the Tourism Collective Consumption, expanded by 23.5 percent to P94.1 billion in 2019, or an average of 4.6 percent from 2012 to 2019. All data presented were in current prices.
Ilarina explained, “Like other countries, they started first with current prices and we are developing and looking at what are exactly the prices in terms of tourism activities, tourism services, and products. So we are moving towards that and hopefully by next year 2021, we can also present to you the estimated both at current prices and constant prices.”
The Philippines has been a hotbed of tourism investments, especially in the hotel and accommodations sector with its consistent growth in foreign tourism arrivals and an even larger increase in domestic travelers. Data provided by real-estate services provider Santos Knight Frank showed that prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, there were 7,078 hotel rooms in the pipeline from 2020 to 2023. (See, “Changes in hotel ownership, branding seen post-Covid,” in the BusinessMirror, June 29, 2020.)
In 2019, foreign tourist arrivals rose by 15.24 percent to 8.26 million, generating P482.15 billion in inbound receipts.
The Department of Tourism (DOT), in a separate presentation at the webinar, showed that 59.34 percent of the foreign visitors were here for holiday/leisure, 3.43 percent were on business trips, and 1.68 percent visited friends and relatives.
According to the DOT’s Visitors Sample Survey for 2019, what the foreign tourists liked most about the Philippines was the Filipinos’ warm hospitality (46.35 percent), beautiful sceneries (30.04 percent), good food (8.45 percent), “everything” (6.33 percent), and that they are able to see loved ones (5.73 percent).
The DOT also reported that Cebu topped its 10 most visited places last year, followed by Rizal, Davao del Sur (including Davao City), Aklan (including Boracay), Batangas, Zambales (including the Subic Bay Freeport and Olongapo), Palawan (including Puerto Princesa), Albay (including Legazpi), Benguet (including Baguio), and Davao de Oro (Compostela Valley).
The most visited places data surprised Tourism Congress of the Philippines President Jose C. Clemente III, who said, “those were not exactly the places we were thinking of, or had on top of mind.”
By DOT’s count, there were 13,336 accommodation establishments nationwide, with a total of 289,168 rooms. The agency did not say if these were the ones it accredited, or the total pie of such establishments.
At current prices, tourism was valued at P2.5 trillion in 2019, up 10.8 percent from 2018, according to the PSA. The sector also contributed 1.32 percentage points to the 6.9-percent growth in the economy, as expressed in gross domestic product, last year. It only came in second to wholesale and retail trade, which contributed 1.6 percentage points to the GDP growth.
By PSA’s reckoning, inbound tourism expenditure, with a 9.9 percent share, ranked second among the country’s biggest export items last year, coming second to semiconductors with a 21-percent share.
“It’s good to know that tourism is one of the bigger contributors to the Philippine economy,” said Clemente. “I think this is something that we have been feeling for the past few years. Were it not for this unfortunate situation we are in right now [i.e., Covid-19], the contribution of tourism would have been much larger than last year,” he added.
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