00:00The tourism industry continues to grow despite the pandemic.
00:06According to Tourism Secretary Cristina Garcia-Frasco,
00:09the country recorded a colorful year in the tourism sector,
00:13with high income and high number of tourists.
00:17This is what Rod Laguzan reported.
00:21In general, the country's tourism is in a good state.
00:25This is what Tourism Secretary Cristina Garcia-Frasco also gave.
00:28Next is the 712 billion pesos recorded in visitor receipts or income from tourism as of December 15.
00:35This is higher than the 697 billion pesos recorded last year,
00:40where the country's recovery rate reached 119%
00:43since the start of 2019 or before the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:47According to Tourism Secretary Garcia-Frasco,
00:49this is one of the important parameters to say that tourism is active
00:52despite the possibility of not reaching the first target of 7.7 million international tourist arrivals for this year.
00:59According to the Department of Tourism, as of December 17,
01:02almost 5.65 million international visitors were recorded,
01:05where South Korea is the first top source market.
01:22To look at the tourism numbers that matter to the economy,
01:26that matter to the lives of the Filipino people.
01:30They are considering the various factors that are affected
01:34since the announcement of the target of 7.7 million international visitors.
01:38For example, this year is expected to reach 2 million Chinese tourists in the country.
01:43But the Department of Foreign Affairs is postponing the implementation of the electronic visa system here.
01:48This is also in line with the involvement of some Chinese nationals in the issue of Pogo.
01:52Meanwhile, the labor force survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority added
01:57that in April, the number of tourism workers was 16.4 million.
02:01In 2023, the tourism investment was estimated to reach 508.8 billion pesos,
02:07from which more than 51.4% came from the accommodation sector,
02:12whose target was to be exceeded in line with the President's commitment to create more law.
02:16We have seen that from an average of 9 nights,
02:19tourists are now staying over 11 nights in the country.
02:23We have the highest tourism per capita spend in the ASEAN at over $2,000.
02:31And we have seen that over 70% of the tourists that come into the country are repeat visitors.
02:40Because of this, the income from tourism is increasing,
02:43and the government is expecting the possibility of expanding this.
02:47Because of the diversified or more choices of tourism products that can be tried in the country.
02:52Rod Laguzad for Pambansang TV in Pagong, Philippines.
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