Contribution of Tourism to Philippines' Economy Reaches 7.8% in 2014

The tourism industry contributed an estimated 7.8 percent to the country's economy in 2014 as measured by the share of tourism direct gross value added (TDGVA) to total gross domestic product (GDP), the Philippine Statistics Authority-National Statistical Coordination Board (PSA-NSCB) said.

Tourism cuts across different sectors of the economy and the TDGVA serves as the indicator to measure the value added of different industries in relation to tourism activities of both inbound and domestic visitors in the country.

The TDGVA amounted to PhP 982.4 billion in 2014, higher by 14.0 percent compared to previous year’s PhP 861.7 billion.

Among the tourism characteristic industries, accommodation services had the biggest share to TDGVA at 32.6 percent, followed by shopping of tourism goods at 15.3 percent, miscellaneous at 15.2 percent, transport services at 12.6 percent, entertainment and recreation at 10.9 percent, travel agencies and other reservation services at 8.6 percent, and food and beverage services at 4.7 percent.

The TDGVA estimate is based on the latest results of the Philippine Tourism Satellite Accounts (PTSA) which also provides information on tourism expenditure and employment. The following are the other key results from PTSA:

Inbound tourism expenditure, which refers to the expenditure of non-resident visitors (foreign visitors and Filipinos permanently residing abroad) within the Philippines, continued to increase as it posted double-digit growth of 21.9 percent in 2014, amounting to PhP 274.6 billion from PhP 225.3 billion in 2013.

Compared to the country’s total exports, the share of inbound tourism expenditure was 7.6 percent. Inbound tourism ranked third among the biggest export items in 2014, after miscellaneous services at 25.1 percent and semiconductors at 19.2 percent.

Domestic tourism expenditure, which includes expenditure of resident visitors within the country either as domestic trip or part of an international trip, grew largely by 24.0 percent, from PhP 1,184.7 billion in 2013 to PhP 1,469.0 billion in 2014.

Meanwhile, domestic tourism expenditure represents 16.0 percent of the household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) in the 2014 national accounts.

Employment in tourism characteristic industries was estimated at 4.8 million in 2014, slightly higher by 1.0 percent compared to 4.7 million in the previous year. Share of employment in tourism industries to total employment in the country was recorded at 12.5 percent in 2014. (PSA-NSCB)

The PTSA is compiled by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in collaboration with the Department of Tourism and the PSA Interagency Committee on Tourism Statistics based on the international recommendations for tourism statistics and tourism satellite accounts of the United Nations World Tourism Organization. The PTSA tables are available at http://nap.psa.gov.ph/stats/ptsa/DataCharts.asp.