Philippines Tourism rolls out 2022 recovery plan to attract international travellers

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

The Department of Tourism of Philippines will pursue a 2022 tourism recovery plan with an end goal of a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive tourism industry.

Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat announces the plan as part of the DOT’s proposed 2022 budget to the House of Representatives appropriations committee.

The Department of Tourism of the Philippines has proposed a PHP3.52 billion budget for 2022 to support its plans and programmes, as well as a PHP63.71 million allocation for the Intramuros Administration and PHP203.79 million for the National Parks Development Committee.

The tourism plan calls for more green tourism lanes first for domestic tourists in early 2022 once the Covid-19 situation in the Philippines stabilises.

The international travel should follow based on the country’s vaccination programme and stabilising COVID-19.  Like its neighbours in ASEAN, the country is looking at ways to live with Covid-19 and establish policies for tourism that are not conditional on achieving zero virus outbreaks, but so far, there are no clear indicators on when the Philippines will fully open to vaccinated international travellers.

Romulo-Puyat said that the department policy direction banks on the reformulated National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) for 2016 to 2022, which has a three-pronged thrust of promoting safe, fun, and competitive tourism; pursuing sustainable, inclusive, and resilient tourism; and strengthening governance and destination management.

The Department of Tourism of the Philippines has also updated its Tourism Response and Recovery Plan (TRRP) with the main objective of mitigating the impact of the pandemic on the tourism industry.

She said this would guide the department and stakeholders in ensuring the protection of jobs and safety of travel workers, visitors, and communities, as well as support for tourism enterprises.

Among others, it will help rebuild confidence and growing demand in domestic and foreign markets.

Before the pandemic, the tourism industry contributed PHP2.51 trillion, or nearly 13%, to the country’s Gross Domestic Product. This dropped to PHP973.31 billion in 2020 at the height of the health crisis. The based on the World Tourism Barometer report of the United Nations World Tourism Organization issued in May, the global travel industry suffered a decline of 72.9% in international visitor arrivals in 2020.

Philippines registered a much steeper 82% slide from 8.26 million tourist arrivals in 2019 to just 1.48 million in 2020.

« Back to Page

• Germany puts visa rejection appeals on hold for Türkiye, China and Morocco

• Macau imposes stringent COVID-19 rules

• Outbound Chinese tourists travel sees huge drop in post pandemic

• Tourism in Cologne: Recovery and normalisation in the 2nd half of 2021

• More than 5,000 flights have been cancelled worldwide this Christmas weekend