Tourism 7.8% of GDP in 2014

THE PHILIPPINE Statistics Authority said it estimated tourism to have accounted for 7.8% of gross domestic Product (GDP) in 2014, quantifying the sector’s impact at P982.4 billion, up 14% year on year.

The estimate is based on a statistic called tourism direct gross value added (TDGVA), which attempts to capture the total contribution of the sector on retail, accommodation, recreation, food and other areas on which tourism has an impact. TDGVA considers the impact of both domestic and international visitors.

It said accommodation services had the biggest share of TDGVA at 32.6%, followed by tourism-related retail at 15.3%, transport services at 12.6%, entertainment and recreation at 10.9% travel agencies at 8.6% and food and beverage at 4.7%. The “miscellaneous” category accounted for 15.2%.

The 7.8% figure offers the possibility of rough comparison with major destinations like Thailand, though methods of compiling tourism statistics vary. The Tourism Authority of Thailand reckons tourism’s contribution at about 7% of GDP, based on international visitors alone, and values its international tourist trade at nearly $16 billion, according to the agency’s Web site.

The World Travel and Tourism Council, a trade association, put the global average at 2.9% of GDP in 2013 based on “direct contribution” to the economy, rising to 3.1% in 2024. By the Council’s broader measure of “total contribution,” tourism was 9.5% of world GDP that year, and is projected to rise to 10.3% by 2024.

The PSA said expenditure of “non-resident visitors,” which includes Filipinos permanently residing overseas, posted double-digit growth of 21.9% in 2014 to P274.6 billion.

It added that inbound tourism expenditure was equivalent to 7.6% of total exports and would rank third in the list of exports behind miscellaneous services (25.1%) and semiconductors (19.2%).

Domestic tourism expenditure, meanwhile, grew 24% to P1.47 trillion, while employment in tourism-related industries was 4.8 million in 2014, up 1%.