MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is trailing behind its ASEAN peers in terms of tourist arrivals so far this year compared to pre-pandemic levels due to the slower pace of returning Chinese tourists, according to Bank of America (BofA).
In a report, Kai Wei Ang, Asia and ASEAN economist at BofA Global Research, said the Philippines is “a clear laggard” when it comes to the pace of tourism recovery across the region.
“The Philippines is lagging considerably behind, with tourist arrivals below 70 percent of 2019 levels,” Ang said.
He said the “underperformance” of the Philippines is mainly due to the “muted pace of returning Chinese tourists,” which is still below 20 percent of 2019 levels.
This also partly reflects the decline of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators since 2020, he said.
Based on the report, Vietnam is the clear leader in terms of tourism arrivals, with latest data tracking 105 to 110 percent of 2019 levels since March. It was followed by Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
BofA also pointed out that outbound seats from China to ASEAN countries, except the Philippines, have expanded starting in the second quarter this year.
“The Philippines is an outlier, with outbound seats falling by nine percentage points to 46 percent of 2019 levels,” Ang said.
Latest data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed the Philippines has welcomed 3.17 million inbound tourists as of July. Around 2.94 million or 92.6 percent were foreign tourists, while 236,401 or 7.5 percent were overseas Filipinos.
The latest tally represents 41.2 percent of the DOT’s 7.7 million target for international visitor arrivals this year.
South Korea was the top source market with 824,798 visitors entering the Philippines, making up 25.9 percent of the total international tourist arrivals as of July.