MANILA, 6 January 2025: Provisional visitor arrivals data released by the Philippines Department of Tourism for January to mid-December 2024 showed the country welcomed 5,646,351 visitors, well below DOT’s 7.7 million target for the year.
The top 10 source markets delivering visit arrivals to the Philippines are South Korea, the USA, Japan, China, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Singapore, the UK and Malaysia.
But Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco, in an end-of-the-year media briefing, shifted the spotlight to other positive indicators, saying they more accurately reflected the robust strengths and sustainability of the country’s tourism industry.
She pointed to the resounding success of the Philippine tourism industry as it earned PHP712 billion in estimated visitor receipts from 1 January to 15 December 2024, representing a 119% recovery rate compared with the pre-Covid 2019 performance of PHP600 billion. During 2023, estimated tourism receipts reached PHP697 billion.
While the traditional practice of measuring tourism’s success by year-end is through tourist arrivals, Frasco said she encouraged a wider perspective encompassing the “numbers that matter.”
“Visitor receipts, tourism spend, length of stay and tourism employment drive our economy and employ our people, and in all of these numbers, the Philippines is performing exceptionally well,” she emphasised.
Citing a report from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the Tourism Secretary underscored the positive yield in tourism revenues and the importance of attracting more tourists to stay longer in the Philippines.
Independent data from WTTC, which explored comparative tourism spending per capita in the ASEAN 10-country bloc, revealed that international tourists visiting the Philippines spend at least USD2,073 per capita.
“Therefore, beyond quantity, we are attracting quality, yielding more revenues for our stakeholders, (and) more jobs for our people. And as we have focused on elevating the quality of tourism in the Philippines and diversifying our tourism products, tourists are staying longer in the Philippines,” she said.
As for the length of stay compared to the average of nine nights in 2019, tourists now stay an average of over 11 nights in the country.
WTTC data also shows that 70% of tourists coming to the country are repeat visitors.
“Tourists have come to Love the Philippines — they are higher spenders. They stay longer and make repeat visits to our country,” she told the media briefing.
Regarding employment, the tourism chief shared that the tourism industry also delivered massive figures for the first quarter of 2024.
Based on the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) April 2024 Labour Force Survey, 16.4 million or 34.11% of the country’s overall employment came from direct and indirect tourism employment, which involves providing goods or services to foreign tourists, local visitors, or tourism-related businesses.
Among the Philippine regions, Region 4A (Calabarzon) had the highest employment in tourism at 2.92 million, followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) at 2.80 million and Region 3 (Central Luzon) at 2.49 million. Region 7 (Central Visayas) and Region 6 (Western Visayas) came fourth and fifth, delivering 1.57 million and 1.07 million, respectively.
“These figures highlight the pivotal role of tourism in generating livelihood and uplifting communities nationwide and certainly show the impact of Philippine tourism,” Frasco concluded.
(Source: Department of Tourism Philippines).
