The country’s recovery in the tourism sector is the slowest in the region, according to a Fitch Ratings report that said the Philippines clocked a recovery rate of 61 percent in 2023, which is relatively slower compared to tourism growth in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, which registered 70 to 80 percent of the prepandemic benchmark.
This is despite the Department of Tourism having exceeded its year-end target of 4.8 million visitors by 650 thousand, at 5.45 million international visitors last year.
However, the good news is that there is still a lot of potential to be maximized as the tourism sector is expected to be one of the drivers for economic growth this year. Robert Dan Roces, chief economist at Security Bank, said that for the first quarter alone, one of the top performing sectors was accommodation and food and beverage services, driven by tourism among others.
Fitch Ratings also expects tourism in the region to continue to recover – although at a slower pace mainly due to “less favorable base effects” – fueled by robust demand, economic resilience, additional flight capacity, policy efforts to reignite tourism, and depreciated local currencies.
“We project visitation volume in Asia-Pacific to reach about 335 million, or 92 percent of the prepandemic level despite a mild global economic slowdown,” the report said.
The debt watcher expects an overall recovery of tourism in the region, buoyed by its economic resilience. This is a trend that the Philippines could and should maximize as it plays tourism catch up with its peers in the region. That would be possible if the stakeholders in the country’s tourism industry can work smarter, harder, and together.
Being the laggard is only bad if the race has ended. However, when it comes to tourism, where the competition never really ends, that can also be a good thing, as it gives the competitor more leeway to catch up and even overtake their peers. Hopefully, the Philippine tourism sector does not give up at this point, but instead continues to compete as hard as it can.*
