MANILA — International tourist arrivals in the Philippines have yet to reach pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, but visitor receipts show a 116 percent recovery, according to the Department of Tourism.

During Tuesday’s deliberations of the House Committee on Appropriations on the proposed 2025 budget for the DOT, Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said over 5.45 million foreign tourists visited the country in 2023. 

The agency is targeting at least 7.7 million international tourist arrivals this year, just half a million shy of the country’s pre-pandemic record high of 8.3 million in 2019.

But the DOT said that other metrics of tourism performance have exceeded pre-pandemic levels by a lot. Visitor receipts, for instance, more than doubled compared to 2019, while total employment in tourism industries are up 88% last year compared to four years ago.

“Since the onset of the pandemic, global world tourism bodies and nations have expanded their view of measuring tourism performance to include most importantly visitor receipts. The money that goes into the coffers of the nation, and the pockets of our local stakeholders, because this is what keeps the economy running,” Frasco told lawmakers.

“In that regard, I am pleased to announce that we have accomplished an over 116 percent recovery of our visitor receipts, as well as have ranked number 1 in southeast Asia as far as our domestic tourism performance… contributing the highest in terms of GDP contributions among all ASEAN nations,” she added.

“As far as tourism employment is concerned, we have since employed 6.21 million Filipinos and the latest number as of April this year is pegged at over 16 million Filipinos. If we are to judge tourism industry performance by the new metrics that’s being used by the Philippine Statistics Authority, as far as tourism employment is concerned, we have also more than recovered our numbers,” the DOT Chief added.

“Not only must we look at quantity, but quality and to ensure the sustainable development of our tourism destinations. We continue to chase after the numbers nonetheless,” Frasco noted.

The proposed 2025 budget for the DOT and its attached agencies under the National Expenditure Program is at P3.39 billion, lower by 2.8 percent than its current budget of P3.49 billion, and less than the pre-pandemic budget of around P4 billion.

Several lawmakers have expressed support to augment DOT’s budget next year, citing the sector’s contribution to the country’s economy.

“Restore the budget of DOT to pre-pandemic levels, at the very least P4 billion,” Lanao del Norte 1st District Representative Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo urged his colleagues.