PH ranks poorly in tourism sustainability, resilience indices

By: Ben O. de Vera, INQPhilippine Daily Inquirer, 15 Mar 2021

The Philippines has been ranked 94th or near the tail-end among countries promoting sustainable tourism tracked by global business intelligence and market analysis provider Euromonitor International while it also lagged behind another ranking of “travel potential” in Asia-Pacific.

In Euromonitor’s “Top Countries for Sustainable Tourism: Embracing a Green Transformation for Travel Recovery” report published on March 12, the Philippines’ position in the 2020 sustainable travel index rankings of 99 countries was only better than four other countries—Pakistan, India, Mauritius, Vietnam and Morocco.

Euromonitor said the index assessed a total of 57 travel indicators across environmental, social and economic sustainability; country risk, and sustainable tourism demand, transport and lodging.

“As destinations around the world slowly begin to reopen while protecting local communities and preserve livelihoods, there is a growing awareness among consumers, businesses and governments for the need to prioritize not only profit but people and the planet,” Euromonitor said,

While the report did not elaborate on the Philippines’ low rank, Euromonitor said the country’s “debt ranking lowered substantially, [while] employment in tourism and transportation sectors became more important.”

Despite the Philippines’ overall weak performance, Euromonitor noted that the country was among the most improved in terms of economic sustainability (ranked 55th) and social sustainability (78th).

In a separate report of UK-based Oxford Economics’ unit Tourism Economics, the Philippines had the lowest rank in the “short-haul resilience” index, which reflected the share of inbound travelers coming from nearby foreign tourist markets—the country had only 10 percent or less.

The Philippines also joined Australia and Sri Lanka among markets expected to post below-average inbound travel recovery in 2022, Tourism Economics senior economist for Asia-Pacific Michael Shoory said in his March 11 report.

In terms of “domestic resilience” or share of local travelers, the Philippines ranked near the average among 20 Asia-Pacific destinations, but fell to second lowest—only better than Cambodia—in terms of “travel resilience” or short-haul and domestic tourism combined.

As for “domestic opportunity” or the share of outbound overseas trips by its residents, the Philippines was below-average in the region, such that the overall “travel potential,” which combined the short-haul and domestic resilience with domestic opportunity landed the country in last place in the region. INQ