By Donnabelle
L. Gatdula (The Philippine Star) | Updated August 1, 2013 - 12:00am
MANILA,
Philippines - The influx of international tourists continues to improve growing
11 percent in the first half of 2013 to 2.4 million, Tourism Secretary Ramon
Jimenez Jr. told The STAR.
The arrival
figure, he said, makes up 45 percent of the projected 5.5-million arrivals for
the year.
He said the
sustained growth in foreign tourist arrivals signals the country’s robust
efforts to improve its tourism industry.
Jimenez said
while data from United Nations World Travel Organization (UNWTO) showed the
Philippines lagging behind its neighboring countries in attracting foreign
tourists, this may not reflect the actual picture.
“The
Philippines is not part of a contiguous land mass unlike our neighbors. We are
in the middle of the ocean,” he said.
“What the
UNWTO data may have counted are the number of tourists visiting each country in
Southeast Asia, even those crossing borders and/or making frequent visits by
land. For example, citizens of Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore..crossing
borders every day and being counted as tourists. We have no way of doing that
here,” he pointed out.
“What we only
have are air arrivals data which the UN data does not show. About 98 percent of
our visitors arrive here by plane. Even the tourists from our neighbors would
have to travel by plane just to visit here. Just imagine, a Malaysian tourist
could visit Thailand and Singapore by land. The same with Vietnam, where its
citizens can just cross borders from Laos and Cambodia,” he said.
Jimenez
admitted that being an archipelago, in a way, is “our disadvantage.”
“We have to
explain this to our people. We are really making big improvement in our tourism
industry. We can not compare apples with oranges. We should look at it in terms
of income. Capturing over four million foreign visitors now is a big push to
our tourism industry and the economy as a whole,” he said.
The tourism
department has estimated that total visitor receipts could reach P1.504
trillion in 2013 from P1.308 trillion in 2012.
These figures
would translate to 6.2 percent and 6.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)
for 2012 and 2013, respectively.
In the latest
UNWTO data, the Philippines’ international tourism arrivals in 2012 stood at
4.3 million as against Malaysia (25 million); Thailand (22 million) and Vietnam
(6.8 million).
But the
country’s tourism receipts have steadily increased to $4 billion in 2012 from
$3.19 billion in 2011 and $2.6 billion in 2010.
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