TOURISM Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said reduced budget allocations and strict guidelines for tourists entering the Philippines could hold back efforts to reach the government’s targetted arrivals this year.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) said funds for the agency’s branding and marketing campaigns under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2025 have been reduced from what was recommended.
“We anticipate it will affect tourism arrivals considering the lesser opportunity that we have to market the Philippines, the lesser chances there are to reach as many markets or many people as we wish,” Frasco said.
She added that destinations that benefit from the DOT’s campaign would also be affected.
In 2024, the Philippines received 5.95 million visitors.
While this was 9.15 percent more than the 5.45 million tourists in 2023, this still fell short of the DOT’s forecast of 7.7 million tourist arrivals under the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) 2023-2028.
Frasco added that nobody could have anticipated that geopolitics would eventually affect arrivals from China.
“Our initial projection was approximately 2 million Chinese tourists, but only over 300,000 arrived by the end of 2024,” Frasco said.
The DOT recorded only 170,432 Chinese visitors to the Philippines in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic restricted travel, resulting in a drop of 9,674 in 2021, 39,627 in 2022, 263,836 in 2023, and 312,222 in 2024.
The DOT has continuously supported the development of electronic visa (e-visa) programs, particularly in prospective tourism markets such as China, but the program there has been suspended.
However, the DOT sees a silver lining in the implementation of the e-visa system for Indian travelers, which Frasco described as a “large opportunity for the Philippines.”
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