MANILA, 25 November 2022: The Department of Tourism supports adjusting the 2023 official holidays list 2023 to create more long weekends to support domestic tourism recovery.
According to the Philippines News Agency, Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco agreed that “holiday economics” would provide more long weekends to allow Filipinos a chance to explore the Philippines.
She praised the “effort of the Marcos administration to enhance the overall tourism experience of coming into and going around the Philippines.”
The industry continues to rely on domestic tourism as the primary revenue earner until China reopens outbound tourism. At present only business trips are allowed. Optimistically, the travel pundits suggest China’s outbound travel market could resume in time for the Chinese New Year celebrations in the week beginning 22 January 2023, but that is now looking unlikely as lockdowns continue in China. There are no indicators that China will relax its zero-Covid policy in the short term. Before the pandemic, the Philippines’ domestic tourism earnings reached PHP3.1 trillion.
(Source: Philippines News Agency)
