The country posted the highest growth in the tourism sector last year despite coming from the pandemic period, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
The PSA reported that the share of tourism direct gross value added to the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP), was estimated at 8.6 percent in 2023.
The tourism sector contributed P2.09 trillion in 2023, higher by 47.9 percent compared with the P1.41 trillion in 2022.
“This is the highest growth of tourism since the start of the data compilation in the year 2000,” the PSA noted.
The statistics agency monitors the following for the measurement of tourism growth: accommodation services, food and beverage serving activities, transport services, travel agencies and other reservation services, entertainment and recreation services, shopping, and miscellaneous services.
Among the forms of tourism expenditures, inbound tourism expenditure posted the highest annual growth of 87.7 percent, amounting to P697.46 billion last year, followed by domestic tourism expenditure, which grew by 72.3 percent, from P1.55 trillion to P 2.67 trillion.
Meanwhile, outbound tourism expenditure posted a 10.0 percent growth, from P189.29 billion to PhP 208.25 billion.
Internal tourism expenditure, comprising inbound and domestic tourism, grew by 75.3 percent to P3.36 trillion from P1.92 trillion.
On the other hand, employment in the tourism industry was estimated at 6.21 million in 2023, up by 6.4 percent compared with the 5.84 million individuals in tourism characteristic industries in 2022.
The tourism industry shared 12.9 percent of the total employment in the country last year.
Latest data from the Department of Tourism showed that a total of 2,010,522 international visitors entered the country in April, with 94.21 percent or 1,894,076 of the country’s total international arrivals delivered by foreign tourists, while 5.79 percent or 116,446 are overseas Filipinos.
This is 15.11 percent higher than the international arrivals recorded at 1,746,630 in the same period last year.