Puyat convenes tourism council to assess progress

MANILA, Philippines — Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat has convened the Tourism Coordinating Council (TCC) in a bid to assess the progress of the tourism industry in the past three years in line with the implementation of the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) 2016 to 2022.

The TCC is a 25-member agency body created under Republic Act 9593 or the Tourism Act of 2009 to serve as the coordinating body for national tourism development efforts including the NTDP. Among its members are the heads of concerned national agencies and government offices, DOT-attached agencies, non-governmental organizations and the Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) representing the private sector.

“We gathered to meet as a national tourism body and to gauge how we have performed in the last three years as far as the implementation of the NTDP 2016 to 2022 is concerned,” Puyat said during her keynote speech at the TCC meeting yesterday.

“The NTDP has provided us with a clear track towards a competitive, sustainable and inclusive tourism industry that is anchored on the thrusts of the current administration of President Duterte,” she added.

The last TCC meeting was held two years ago, when the NTDP 2016 to 2022 was approved and adopted. The development plan was approved by the President during the 14th Cabinet meeting in April 2017.

“As we reach this halfway mark, it is time for us to come together and evaluate all our tourism convergence efforts, assess the effectiveness of the strategies and programs identified, make adjustments on the plan if needed, and prioritize the completion of remaining tasks at hand to ensure that the NTDP targets are achieved by its completion in 2022,” Puyat said.

Since the adoption of the NTDP, the tourism sector continued to post significant growth, as it already surpassed some of the plan’s targets.

Among these are the gross domestic product (GDP) contribution target of 10 percent for 2022, as well as the 96 million domestic tourists target for the same year.

As of 2018, the tourism sector’s GDP contribution already reached 12.7 percent at P2.2 trillion, while the number of domestic tourists registered at 110 million.

“The Philippines has kept a high profile in the world tourism radar. We are still among the sought-after destinations by many foreign travelers. In fact, foreign tourist arrivals to the country continues to grow by leaps and bounds,” Puyat said.

In the first half of 2019, foreign arrivals reached 4.1 million, an 11.43 percent rise from the previous year.

Korea remains as the country’s top source market with 946,025 arrivals to the country, which makes up 22.89 percent of total market share.

This is followed by China with 866,561; the US with 569,204 arrivals; Japan with 326,907 visitors and Taiwan with 159,532 arrivals.