Tourism's contribution to GDP down 64 points to 5.4% in 2020 –PSA

The Department of Tourism (DOT) contributed 5.4% to the country's gross domestic product in virus-hit 2020, which is down by 64.2% from 2019, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Monday.

In a virtual forum, Vivian Ilarina, PSA Assistant National Statistician, said their data showed that the Tourism Department's share of the GDP fell from P2.5 trillion in 2019 to P973.3 billion in 2020.

Meanwhile, internal tourism expenditure also went down by 81.6% from P3.7 trillion in 2019 to P689.5 billion in 2020.

Inbound tourism expenditure also declined by 77.9% from P600.1 billion in 2019 to P132.6 billion last year.

As for employment tourism, it plummeted by 18.1% from 5.7 million employees in 2019 to 4.7 million employees in the previous year.

"This means for every 100 employees, 12 are employed in tourism industries," Ilarina said.

DOT to conduct consultations

Warner Andrada, chief of the DOT Office of Tourism Development Planning, said they are looking into adjusting the different scenarios of travel restrictions and economic issues during the pandemic.

He was asked if the DOT will revise its targets on inbound travelers and its national tourism development plan.

"With these new developments and estimates, we are currently adjusting in different scenarios and estimated initial scenarios. Hope we can go back to consultants to adjust to these scenarios," Andrada said in the same forum.

He added that they will also look at the progress of tourism in other countries. — DVM, GMA News