DOT to probe anti-competition practices in tourism sector

The Department of Tourism (DOT) is set to check if any anti-competitive practices are present in the tourism sector especially in terms of pricing of products and services, in a bid to protect foreign and domestic tourists.

In an interview, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat told The STar she recently met with officials of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to discuss if there are anti-competition practices in the tourism sector.

“They are not as familiar with the tourism industry. They just wanted to know if there is possible anti-competition in the private sector,” Puyat said.

Puyat said while the DOT currently does not see any anti-competitive practices in the tourism sector, there is a need to check this area.

“I’ve already reported this to the Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP). We will help each other,” Puyat said.

The TCP is the private sector consultative body which assists the DOT in the development, implementation and coordination of Philippine tourism policies.

“We will look if there is collusion in terms of price because if there is collusion in terms of price, it will be too high for our foreign and domestic tourists,” Puyat said.

Collusion occurs when rivals conspire to work together to gain an unfair market advantage instead of competing with each other.

The tourism sector is among the major drivers of the Philippine economy, contributing a 12.7 percent share in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018 at P2.2 trillion, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

This is already above the DOT’s 10 percent GDP contribution target for 2022 under the National Tourism Development Plan.

Apart from surpassing GDP contribution targets, the country also exceeded its 86 million domestic tourists target for 2022 as it closed 2018 with a total of 111 million domestic tourists.

The DOT recently reported that foreign arrivals also continues to grow as it posted a 14.37 increase from January to September this year to 6.16 million arrivals.