3-month tourism earnings exceed 2021 numbers

THE Philippines was likely to have earned US$488.2 million, or some P24.5 billion, from inbound tourists who arrived from February 10 to April 26 this year. Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat underscored, though, that these tourism receipts are just preliminary estimates based on last year’s average daily expenditure and average length of stay by tourists. “We’re still working on the data; our Visitor Sample Survey, which is the usual basis for our receipts, is still ongoing,” she explained.

Data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed the average daily expenditure at $141.73 (P6,974.57), while the average length of stay was 10.58 nights, in 2021. This puts the three-month visitor receipts this year at 188.2 percent higher than the P8.5 billion earned in the entire 2021. However, this was 80.5 percent lower than the P126 billion earned pre-pandemic, from February to April 2019.

Still, Romulo Puyat was optimistic about the tourism prospects for the rest of the year, based on current figures. “As you know, tourism is a business. All these earnings will help lift our stakeholders, who had very little income in the two years we were closed due to the pandemic. So these new numbers are very encouraging,” she said.

Foreign analysts forecast Philippine tourism to turn around this year with the country’s reopening to inbound travelers, such that it leads other Southeast Asian nations in the number of actual inbound flights booked for the second quarter of the year. (See, “Hot summer fun in PHL as flight bookings rise,” in the Businessmirror, April 27, 2022.)

Sokor tourists now top 3 arrivals

THE DOT chief also said the recent projection of the private sector of 1-million in foreign tourist arrivals by the end of the year, was “highly possible,” especially now that South Koreans were already slowly climbing up to the list of the Philippines’ top tourism markets. “They’re number 3 already,” said Romulo Puyat, who recently visited Seoul to woo their citizens to visit the Philippines. Prior to the pandemic, in 2019, South Koreans topped the list of arrivals in the country, accounting for 1.98 million of the total arrivals of 8.26 million.

From February 10 to April 26, there were 325,328 total foreign tourists who arrived in the Philippines. Balikbayans (homecoming Filipinos) accounted for 40 percent of the total, or 131,534, while foreigners accounted for some 60 percent at 193,794.

Of the total foreign tourists, Americans topped the list at 67,312, followed by Canadians at 15,527; South Koreans at 14,901; Australians at 14,684; British at 13,826; Japanese at 7,590; Vietnamese at 7,060; Germans at 5,965; Singaporeans at 3,866; and Malaysians at 3,433.

The data was gathered from government’s One Health Pass registration for inbound arrivals at the international airports in Manila/pasay, Clark in Pampanga, Subic in Zambales, Mactan in Cebu, Davao, and Panglao in Bohol.

In a webinar on revenge travel last week, Tourism Congress of the Philippines president Jose C. Clemente III said inbound arrivals could exceed 1 million by the end of 2022. (See, “Fearless forecast’ of 1-M foreign tourists by yearend,” in the Businessmirror, April 29, 2022.)