By THEPHILBIZNEWS STAFF
Foreign tourists have spent nearly a quarter of a trillion pesos in the Philippines from January to June of this year as the country hosted 4.1 million tourists in the first half of 2019, an increase of 11.43 percent from the same period last year.
In a statement released yesterday, August 16, the DOT said that corresponding total receipts from the six-month arrivals reached P245 billion, an increase of 17.57 percent from the half-year gross revenues in 2018.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) is pleased with the figures that reflect a more dynamic Philippine tourism industry which is good for the Filipino people. “These economic numbers are exciting but the real purpose of why the government is working hard to push these numbers up year after year is for the Filipino people. Tourism in 2018 was responsible for 5.4 million jobs in 2018, contributing 12.7 percent or P2.2 trillion to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat.
Data provided by the DOT Statistics, Economic Analysis and Information Management Division (SEAMID) show the highest monthly receipts of P48 billion in the month of February.
For June 2019, spending reached an estimated P38 billion, which is 30.56 percent higher than the same month last year, while tourist per capita expenditure increased to $1,086.61 (about P57,100) or 30.97 percent higher than June 2018.
So far, the DOT is keeping up with its target to attract high spending and longer staying tourists in the Philippines. As proof that our guests truly find it more fun in the Philippines, average daily expenditure and average length of stay per tourist reached $120.60 (P634) and 9.01 nights, respectively, which is 28.64 percent and 1.81 percent higher than the same month last year. This is based on the data from visitor sample survey.
“At the end of the day, it is the number of lives changed for the better by tourism that would truly count,” said Romulo-Puyat.
