MANILA, Philippines — Tourism stakeholders are seeing bright prospects for the industry next year as it rides on the growth momentum of the sector’s 2019 performance.
“With the proper combination of infrastructure development, accessibility and pricing, 2020 could very well be another banner year for Philippine tourism,” Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) president Jose Clemente II told The STAR.
“We are close to achieving our target arrivals for the year and the Secretary has already mentioned that we are on track to surpass last year’s tourism revenue. So all in all, 2020 is looking very good,” he said.
Latest data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed that foreign arrivals in January to October grew 15 percent to 6.8 million from 5.9 million recorded a year ago.
This puts the Philippines on track to meet its 8.2 million foreign arrivals target for 2019 under the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) 2016-2022.
“Of course (arrivals) numbers are very important but, for us, how much was earned is more important,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said earlier.
The country is on track to meet its tourism receipts target of P564 billion for this year under NTDP.
Tourism receipts have already reached P379 billion from January to September this year, around 67 percent of the full-year target.
“Figures have shown that we are on the right path as far as tourism is concerned. Numbers are up in most of our target markets as the Philippines continues to become a preferred destination in Asia,” Clemente said.
“More and more markets that did not notice us in the past are now engaging us for tour programs and products,” he said.
Puyat stressed the need to target alternative markets, noting that this would also help boost tourism revenue.
“And of course not only promote sun and beach, we’re also actually – we just met with our tourism attaches and our market representatives and we agreed to not only focus on our major markets, but also our alternative markets like South America. They actually don’t know that we exist.
“So we’re are going to be looking at alternative markets – strengthening alternative markets so that we don’t only rely on our primary market, Puyat said.
Moreover, Philippine Tour Operators Association (PHILTOA) president Cesar Cruz also expressed an optimistic outlook for the tourism sector next year.
“For next year, we are very positive. By next year, we have already surpassed some of the challenges. The infrastructure will be coming in a completion stage,” Cruz said.
“I think the Philippines has developed that kind of sense of imaging. We have already gotten away from that security image of not being a safe place. That’s not a question anymore,” he added.
The PHILTOA president emphasized that the challenge now is to make the country standout among other ASEAN countries.
“(We are) trying to project ourselves as a bettter destination. The competition is in the neighbor. That’s how we look at it,” Cruz said.
He added that this can be achieved by continuing the promotion of the Philippines as a fun destination.
“We will keep on projecting the Philippines as a fun destination, which really makes a difference among other ASEAN countries,” Cruz said.
In February, the DOT launched a refreshed It’s More Fun campaign which featured 100 percent crowd-sourced content.
The It’s More Fun in the Philippines campaign was first launched in 2012. DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat is the third tourism secretary to retain the slogan.