Accommodation and transportation are among the largest consumers of water and energy as well as largest contributors to carbon emissions in the tourism sector, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The PSA’s latest data showed accommodation accounted for 79.6 percent of water used in the sector; 44.6 percent of electricity/energy consumption; and 22.5 percent of carbon emissions.
Transportation, meanwhile, accounted for 57.5 percent of carbon emissions of the sector; 24.7 percent of energy consumption; and 3.3 percent of the water consumed by the tourism sector.
“Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism [MST] is a developmental satellite account compiled by the Philippine Statistics Authority starting 2021,” PSA said.
“It aims to provide useful information towards achieving a suitable balance among the economic, environmental, and social aspects of tourism development,” the PSA said.
The PSA added tourism water consumption reached 132.54 million cubic meters (m3) in 2021. It was 19 percent higher than the 111.38 million m3 recorded in the previous year.
The data also showed the energy consumption of tourism from the use of Electricity and Petroleum and other fuel products was 3,041.99 kilotonnes of Oil Equivalent (KTOE) in 2021, a contraction of 4.7 percent from 3,192.29 KTOE recorded in 2020.
The PSA also said carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions resulting from the use of Electricity and Petroleum and other fuel products by the tourism sector was equal to 3,888.18 Gigagrams (Gg) in 2021, a contraction of 10.9 percent from the 4,366.09 Gg recorded in the previous year.
Meanwhile, Dennis S. Mapa, the National Statistician and Civil Registrar General of the PSA, said efforts to improve tourism data are already under way.
Mapa said for one, the PSA is working on initiatives toward the compilation of Subnational Tourism Satellite Accounts. He said the PSA’s next plan for the compilation of tourism accounts for other regions start this year until 2025.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) and PSA have also have partnered for the conduct of the 2022 Household Survey on Domestic Visitors for the generation of baseline data on domestic and outbound tourism.
Future work for the improvement of tourism statistics in terms of data management through the establishment of an information system and GIS dashboard was also presented.
In a news statement, the DOT assured its commitment to ensure the uninterrupted generation of reliable and accurate reports and to explore other opportunities for the formulation of new indicators such as tourism competitiveness, resiliency, and productivity.