MANILA, 14 January 2025: Despite a hefty cut in its promotional budget, the Philippines’ Department of Tourism (DOT) “remains firm in its commitment to increase tourist arrivals” during 2025, the Philippines News Agency reports.
PNA quoted Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco during a briefing in Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon last Friday, saying DOT could continue its global campaign “Love the Philippines” despite a limited budget for promotions in 2024. She implied it was business as usual, even with budgets slashed for a second year.
During 2024, DOT missed its 7.7 million tourist arrival target, reaching 5.94 million, 9.15% higher than the 5.45 million foreign visitors recorded in 2023.
Frasco blamed the below-target performance mainly on the massive slowdown in Chinese arrivals in 2024. By the close of 2024, the Philippines welcomed just 300,000 Chinese nationals, well below the 1.74 million Chinese who had visited the Philippines in pre-Covid 2019.
Frasco argued that in the wake of “various matters beyond our control, we persevered and diversified our tourism products, focused on our top source markets, and ensured that tourism spending was high.”
This resulted in a record-high PHP760 billion tourist spending in 2024. Frasco emphasised that the DOT was concentrating on improving tourism receipts, the trip spending of foreign visitors, and the length of stay.
All of these factors increased in 2024 based on independent data released by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
DOT takes a leaf out of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) 2024 Economic Impact Research (EIR) that forecast a record-breaking year for Travel & Tourism in the Philippines, with its economic contribution, job numbers, and visitor spending all reaching new highs.
According to WTTC data, the sector’s contribution to the national economy surpasses PHP5.4 trillion in 2024. marking an almost 25% year-on-year growth and soaring 7.1% above the previous 2019 peak.
Travel & Tourism represents more than one-fifth (21.3%) of the country’s economy, underscoring the sector’s critical role in supporting the nation and its local communities.
The data also signals a remarkable year for employment, growing beyond the 2019 peak to surpass 9.5 million jobs — 20% of the national workforce.
Both international and domestic visitor spending in 2024 exceeded previous records, reaching PHP715.6 billion and PHP3.7 trillion, surpassing 2019 levels by 5.7% and 1.8%, respectively.
This growth is a testament to the government’s efforts in enhancing tourism infrastructure, with efforts underway to upgrade regional airports to alleviate congestion at Manila’s main airport and make travel more accessible, WTTC noted.
Promotions budget cut
The PNA report noted that the “cuts in the DOT’s branding and promotions budget for 2025 from the proposed PHP500 million to PHP100 million would impact the agency’s promotion efforts in key markets, especially at a time when the country is trying to recover its pre-pandemic arrival figures.”
This is not the first time DOT has suffered a severe budget cut in its branding campaign. In 2024, its promotional funding programme dropped to PHP200 million from PHP1.27 billion in 2023.
“We anticipate that it could impact tourism arrivals,” said Frasco, “considering there will be fewer opportunities to market the Philippines and fewer chances to reach as many markets as we would wish.”
(Source: PNA)
