Tourism contribution to GDP highest in 18 years

Tourism’s contribution to the Philippine economy, as measured by the share of tourism direct gross value added (TDGVA), was highest in 18 years, the government said this morning.
According to preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the TDGVA stood at 12.2% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, up from the previous year’s 10.7% and was the highest since 2000.
The TDGVA amounted to P1.929 trillion, up by 24.2% from the previous year’s P1.554 trillion.
Resident tourists spent the most, as domestic tourism expenditure grew 25.5% to P2.645 trillion from P2.108 trillion in 2016.
Meanwhile, non-resident tourists spent P448.6 billion in 2017, up 43.9% from P311.7 billion in the previous year.
Employment in tourism slightly grew to 5.3 million from 2016’s 5.2 million. The share of employment in tourism industries to total employment stood at 13.1% in 2017. — Christine Joyce S. Castaneda