TPB eyes greater share in AsPac tourism traffic

The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) is aiming for increased share in Asia Pacific’s inbound tourist traffic as world-leading independent market research firm Euromonitor International notes the region’s rising percentage in world visitor arrivals since 2008.

Asia Pacific’s share of global tourism traffic had been growing consistently from 20 percent in 2008 to 23 percent in 2012, and projected to reach 25 percent in 2017 and 28 percent in 2022.

This market trend was presented by Euromonitor’s research analyst Jocelyn Cheung at the TPB seminar held during the staging of the recently-concluded Philippine Travel Exchange (Phitex) 2017.

Cheung also noted that tourists from Asia Pacific traveled mostly within the region, making TPB eye its component countries with large outbound markets as priority targets for intensified marketing campaigns.

“The Euromonitor’s report was confirmed by statistics on the Philippines’ June 2017 tourism performance. Except for the United Kingdom which ranked eight, the rest of the country’s top 10 sources of inbound tourists were from Asia Pacific such as South Korea, United States, China, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Canada, Singapore and Malaysia,” said TPB chief operating officer Cesar Montano.

Citing Cheung’s presentation, Montano said the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of inbound arrivals in Asia Pacific from 2012 to 2017 hovered at around six percent, and inbound receipts at 15 percent.

“This (statistics) means that the Philippines must more than double Asia Pacific’s current six percent CAGR in inbound arrivals and increase its percentage of the region’s projected 28 percent share in global tourist inflows by 2022 for the TPB to hit its target of 12 million foreign tourists over the next six years,” he said.

From 2012 to 2017, inbound arrivals in the Philippines posted a CAGR of only 9.4 percent, and domestic travel 14.3 percent.

Domestic travel also accounted for 81 percent of Philippine tourism, and international inbound traffic 19 percent.

“That means hitting our 12-million target for 2022 requires an additional 3.2 percent to have a CAGR of 12.6 percent that can take us to our goal over the next six years,” he stressed.

“The strategy is to retain our captive markets while intensifying our marketing offensive in Asia Pacific and expanding to other regions with the appropriate value proposition according to each of our target countries’ specific requirements,” Montano said.