Why Did the Philippines Miss Its 2024 Tourism Arrivals Target?
In 2024, a total of 5.95 million tourists visited the Philippines. That’s way below the 7.7 million target of the Department of Tourism. The number is just 9.15-percent higher than the arrivals in 2023, but 28-percent below the pre-pandemic level of 8.3 million.
So, what happened?
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In a news statement released earlier this week, the DOT tried to downplay the sobering arrivals number by highlighting the total visitor receipts the country logged instead. Last year, tourism receipts increased 41 percent to P760 billion (about $13.1 billion), from the P539.4 billion ($9.3 billion) recorded in 2019. According to the DOT, the number surpassed the DOT’s P505-billion conservative inbound revenue target under its National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) for 2023-2028, which was based on the Development Budget and Coordinating Committee’s foreign exchange rate estimate of P53 per US dollar for 2024.
“With these figures, it is clear that the Philippine tourism industry is not only bouncing back but also evolving and expanding, contributing significantly to the nation’s economic stability and growth,” said DOT Secretary Christina Frasco. “In the past year, we have witnessed the remarkable growth in tourism revenue, which has surpassed previous records. This achievement is not just a statistic; it translates to thousands of jobs created for Filipinos, fostering economic resilience and enabling families to thrive.”
Despite the encouraging tourism receipts number, the DOT said it aims to revise its NTDP 2023-2028 this year after missing the 7.7-million arrivals target in 2024. The country wasn’t even able to breach the six million mark, which private analysts had predicted.
The DOT had pinned the recovery of the tourism sector to the arrival of at least two million visitors from mainland China. However, that country’s sluggish economy, and ongoing diplomatic tensions between Manila and Beijing over the West Philippine Sea contributed to the anemic numbers.
Of the total visitor arrivals last year, 5.44 million were foreign passport holders, while the rest, at 510,383, were overseas Filipinos, or Philippine passport holders permanently residing abroad, or balikbayans.
Last year, foreign guest arrivals increased just 8.7-percent from the five million who arrived in 2023. Balikbayans, meanwhile, were 14.16-percent greater than the 447,082 who arrived in 2023.
For comparison, Thailand welcomed 35 million visitors in 2024, up from the 28.15 million in 2023. Malaysia, meanwhile, recorded 22.5 million arrivals from January to November last year, up from the 20.14 million the country recorded during the same period in 2023. Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism reported that foreign tourist arrivals increased 20 percent to 12.66 million from January to November 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, while Vietnam recorded nearly 17.6 million international visitor arrivals in 2024, up 39.5 percent from 2023 and equivalent to 97.6 percent of the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
Data from the DOT showed that Philippines visitor arrivals from Singapore, Canada, and Australia are coming close to their pre-pandemic numbers, but the rest of the country’s top source markets continued to record double-digit decreases.
Visitors from South Korea still topped the list of tourism arrivals at 1.57 million, 21-percent less than in 2019. In second place was the United States with 947,891 (-11 percent); followed by Japan with 388,316 (-43 percent); China 312,222 (-82 percent); Australia, 272,215 (-4.9 percent); Canada 223,944 (-6.2 percent); Taiwan 208,736 (-36 percent); the United Kingdom 160,296 (-23.4 percent); Singapore 157,264 (-0.84 percent); Malaysia 95,713 (-32 pecent); Germany 79,886 (-23 percent); and Hong Kong 79,276 (-13.5 percent).
Compared to 2023, only Japan and China — among the top 12 source markets — showed any significant increases in their number of tourists to the Philippines at 27 percent and 18.04 percent, respectively. Outside of the top 12 list, other significant source markets registering double-digit increases in tourists to the Philippines compared to 2023 were India, up 12.4 percent to 78,995; France 60,743 (+17.7 percent); Spain 46,146 (+35.47 percent); Thailand 45,896 (+12 percent); the United Arab Emirates, 40,026 (+18.53 percent); and Italy 29,943 (+33 percent).
