MANILA, Philippines — Tourism’s contribution to the Philippine economy grew in 2018, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported Thursday.
Tourism’s contribution to the economy, as measured by tourism direct gross value added (TDGVA) to the gross domestic product, was estimated at 12.7% last year, bigger than 12.2% share in 2017.
“The TDGVA amounted to P2.2 trillion in 2018, higher by 14.3% compared to previous year’s record of P1.9 trillion,” PSA said.
TDGVA estimate is based on the latest results of the Philippine Tourism Satellite Accounts, which also provides information on tourism expenditure and employment in 2018.
According to PSA, inbound tourism expenditure — expenditure of non-resident visitors (foreign visitors and Filipinos permanently residing abroad) within the Philippines — was at P 441.4 billion in 2018, down 1.6% from 2017’s P448.6 billion.
“Compared to the country’s total exports, the share of inbound tourism expenditure was 8.0%. Inbound tourism ranked third among the biggest export items in 2018, after miscellaneous services at 31.5% and semiconductors at 22.8%,” PSA said.
Meanwhile, domestic tourism expenditure, which includes expenditure of resident visitors within the country either as domestic trip or part of an international trip, grew 21.0% to P3.2 trillion last year from P2.6 trillion in 2017.
“Domestic tourism expenditure represents 24.9 percent of the household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) in 2018,” the country’s statistics agency said.
Employment in tourism characteristic industries was pegged at 5.4 million in 2018, 1.8% higher than 5.3 million in the previous year, PSA reported. Share of employment in tourism industries to total employment in the country was recorded at 13.0% last year. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral