Publisher’s Note
T
ODAY, the Philippines tourism industry is the fifth growth
driver of the country’s economy.
The country’s tourism industry performance is off to a
thriving start this year and continues to break records with the
month of February 2016 reaching a total of 549,725 visitors for
a double-digit increase of 20.42% from 2015, this according to
the Department of Tourism (DoT).
Tourism activities for the month of February 2016 generated an
estimate of Php 27.49 billion earnings, posting a growth rate of
42.09% from Php 19.35 billion earnings in February 2015. Korea
remained to be the top spending market during the month with
receipts amounting to PhP12.92 billion. U.S.A. ranked second with an
aggregate visitor spending of PhP2.87 billion. China rose to the third
place with expenditure totaling PhP1.71 billion followed by Japan
with PhP1.45 billion. Completing the top five spending markets is
Australia with a total spending of PhP0.96 billion for the month of
February 2016, figures released by DoT.
Another point the department is looking at the potential to capture
more of the cruise market once dominated by Europe and US. DoT
has geared up its promotion of the country as destination for cruise
ship market seeing the strong interest from international cruise lines
increasing their ports of call and expanding visit to more islands in
the country.
The closeness of the Philippines to major cruise source markets like
China, Japan, and Hong Kong positions the country at a competitive
and comparative advantage in the Asia Pacific Region indicated by
the increased numbers of cruise calls in 2011 from 10 vessel calls to a
total of 54 in 2014. And 2016 has already 66 cruise calls scheduled.
With the ongoing Cruise Tourism Development Strategy which
seeks to position the Philippines as a major cruise destination in Asia
and the Pacific is a big leap in capturing the cruising market and for
the tourism industry as a whole.
PHILIP ORTALEZA
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