Over 1.6M int'l travelers arrive in Philippines since February —DOT

More than 1.6 million international travelers arrived in the Philippines since it reopened leisure travel in February this year, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said Thursday.

At the Senate committee hearing, DOT Secretary Christina Frasco reported that the county has welcomed a total of 1,664,550 international arrivals as of October 5.

This was an increase from the 163,879 international tourist arrivals in pandemic-hit 2021.

“Please note that for the internal projections of the DOT, we projected that we would only receive 1.7 million tourists by December of this year,” Frasco said.

“Therefore, this shows an upward trend in arrivals and the present strategies we have recalibrated and applied since the beginning of this administration have led to an upsurge in arrivals and will allow us to exceed present projections of 1.7 million by the end of the year,” she said.

Frasco said that among the top source markets this year were the United States with 315,279 tourist arrivals; followed by Korea with 220,402; Australia with 77,249; Canada with 70,159; and United Kingdom with 63,533.

Also, Frasco said  that the trend has led to the increase in employment of tourism-related industries with 4.9 million employed, which is 4.6% higher than the 4.68 million in the previous year.

She said that, at least, 8,310 job vacancies were offered in 157 establishments across Manila, Cebu, and Davao in a “Trabaho Truism Asenso," a job fair organized by the Tourism department in partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in September.

Moreover, there were 8,305 applicants found to be initially qualified and needing further assessment, while 530 applicants were referred to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for further training.

“In my discussion with DOLE Secretary [Bienvenido Estudillo] Laguesma, he said there was a workforce shortage in the tourism industry of over 12,000 jobs and considering that over 8,000 jobs were offered in the job fair, then we are on our way [to] addressing this workforce shortage,” she said.

“Since this will be a multi-month campaign, we will be conducting until the anniversary of the DOT next year. We hope to be able to fully address the 12,000 job fair shortage by next year,” she added.

Improve heritage sites

Meanwhile, Senator Loren Legarda urged the Tourism department to include in its priority the improvement and rehabilitation of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the country in order to boost tourism.

Legarda said that accommodations nearby the heritage sites and restrooms must also be prioritized.

“It is a humble suggestion to include in your priorities the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the infrastructure going there, and accommodations nearby, and clean restrooms. That is very basic and I think we can see the culture of the people and we see how clean we are, sanitize in the way we live,” Legarda said.

“So [build] clean restrooms with running water, because sometimes they build [restrooms] walang tubig, walang flush, I know this is so basic [to] discuss in committee hearing but, yes, it shows mindfulness,” she added.

Frasco acknowledged the suggestions of the senator, saying that they will make sure to incorporate it into the department’s programs for the coming year. —LBG, GMA News