LGUs told: Provide tourism data to get marketing support

MANILA, Philippines — The collection of tourism statistics by local government units play a vital role in the crafting of effective marketing plans for these destinations, an official of the Department of Tourism (DOT) said.

In the Philippine Tourism Satellite Account and Tourism Statistics Dissemination Forum Friday, Tourism Assistant Secretary Roberto Alabado said the tourism department will not be able to give marketing support to LGUs that do not provide tourism data.

“If they give us data, then there will be marketing support,” Alabado said, emphasizing that this is something LGUs must realize.

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) OIC-deputy national statistician Rosalinda Bautista said collecting data from the localities has always been a problem.

“Local tourism statistics has always been a problem. We have been working on it on how we can improve the submission by hotels and tourism-related establishments for local governments,” Bautista said.

Alabado said the process of data collection starts from hotels submitting data to the provincial tourism offices, which will then be passed on to the regional tourism offices and to the national government for compilation.

“Year in, year out we train the local tourism offices on how to collect data and then how to process their data,” Alabado said.

He acknowledged that there has been many issues in the collection of data between the local government and regional level such as the lack of tourism officers.

“Some local executives may not find it a priority to collect data...” Alabado said.

Tourism Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. emphasized that statistical data helps the industry assess which areas it has made significant progress and which areas need further improvement.

“They help gauge our country’s tourism industry’s performance in terms of targets; how its policies translate into tangible results such as new jobs and business opportunities; and if at all, we have been able to drive in a culture of tourism among our people,” Bengzon said.

Bengzon said the PSA has been supportive of efforts to collect tourism data over the years through the Philippine Tourism Satellite Accounts (PTSA).

The PTSA provides a comprehensive set of information on tourism that facilitates its analysis in the context of macroeconomic accounts.
Based on the 2018 PTSA, it was found that the tourism sector contribution to the GDP increased to 12.7 percent in 2018, higher than the 12.2 percent contribution in 2017.

The tourism industry’s contribution to the GDP is measured by the Tourism Direct Gross Value Added (TDGVA) which amounted to P2.2 trillion in 2018,a 14.3 percent rise from P1.9 trillion in the previous year. This, however, was the slowest TDGVA growth since 2013 when it rose 12.6 percent.

The growth was mainly driven by domestic tourism expenditure which grew 21 percent to P3.2 trillion from P2.6 trillion year before earlier.

Domestic tourists reached 110 million in 2018, a 14.1 percent rise from 96.4 million in 2017.

In contrast, inbound tourism expenditures dropped 1.6 percent to P 441.4 billion from P448.6 billion in 2017.

The PSA also reported that employment in the tourism industry grew an estimated 5.4 million, 1.8 percent higher than the 5.3 million the previous year.