PHILIPPINE tourism, long hailed as a pillar of national development, is struggling to regain its footing in the post-pandemic era. Despite robust domestic travel and renewed investor confidence, the sector remains constrained by outdated laws, symbolic ‘place-branding’ bills, and fragmented governance.
This is the sobering conclusion of the government think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) in its landmark review, ‘Philippine Tourism Sectoral Review (2000 to 2025): From Promise to Power-Accelerating the Philippines’ Tourism Transformation toward Sustainability, Competitiveness, and Inclusion,’ authored by John Paolo R. Rivera, Marga Clarence P. Bolalin, and John Joseph S. Ocbina.
The report paints a picture of a sector caught between promise and paralysis: a resilient domestic market and strong private-sector investments on one hand, but outdated legal frameworks, fragmented governance, and weak international competitiveness on the other.
Outdated legal framework
TOURISM legislation ‘defines the rules of the game for how the sector grows, competes, and sustains itself.’ Yet the Philippine legal architecture remains ‘thin, uneven, and outdated.’
The core framework, RA 9593 or the Tourism Act of 2009, continues to serve as the sector’s primary enabling law more than fifteen years later. While it established the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) and strengthened the Department of Tourism’s mandate, the absence of a comprehensive update highlights what the authors call ‘policy stagnation.’
Later measures-such as the 2019 amendment (RA 11262) and the 2024 VAT-refund law (RA 12079)-were useful but ‘largely fiscal and transactional.’
‘Taken together, these statutes lack a comprehensive modernization agenda. Unlike other major industries, tourism has not benefited from a second-generation policy framework,’ the report notes.
The rise of ‘place-branding’ laws
LEGISLATIVE activity has surged, with tourism-related bills in the House of Representatives quadrupling from 65 in the 15th Congress to 420 in the 19th. Yet this numerical increase conceals a qualitative decline.
Most measures are ‘site-specific or declaratory,’ proclaiming waterfalls, caves, or towns as eco-tourism parks or heritage villages. These acts rarely include funding provisions, implementing agencies, or sustainability clauses, leaving sites dependent on limited LGU budgets or competitive DOT grants.
Their chief utility, the report concludes, lies in short-term publicity. ‘Congress has become a factory of place-branding acts, not a source of transformative tourism reform.’
Fragmented governance
BEYOND legislation, governance gaps persist. National tourism plans often operate in isolation from local realities.
Local Tourism Development Plans are often drafted merely as compliance documents, with little alignment to the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP). National strategies are ‘largely top-down, with limited consultation of regional realities.’
Tourism management is frequently personality-driven, with officers on temporary contracts replaced after elections, erasing institutional memory and halting long-term projects. Overlapping mandates among DOT, DILG, and DENR further result in inconsistent enforcement and accreditation.
Stakeholders stressed: ‘Tourism products must graduate from PowerPoint to product.’
Economic recovery: Nominal vs. real
DESPITE governance flaws, tourism remains a major economic driver. The report distinguishes between ‘nominal’ recovery, buoyed by inflation, and ‘real’ recovery, adjusted for constant prices.
Tourism Direct Gross Value Added (TDGVA)-the official measure of tourism’s direct contribution to GDP-peaked at 12.9 percent in 2019, but stands at 8.9 percent in 2024, underscoring that real recovery remains gradual.
Employment covers 13.8 percent of the workforce, projected to reach 14.1 million jobs in the next decade.
Investments hit PHP 590.4 billion in 2024, showing strong private-sector confidence despite external shocks.
Sectoral contributions
THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reports that tourism’s PHP2.35-trillion contribution to the economy in 2024 was powered by six subsectors:
Shopping – the single largest contributor, driven by mall tourism, duty-free purchases, and souvenirs.
Accommodation services – hotels, resorts, and homestays, boosted by long-stay balikbayans.
Food and Beverage – restaurants, culinary tourism, and farm-to-table circuits.
Transportation – domestic flights, ferries, land transfers, and ride-hailing.
Entertainment and Recreation – theme parks, nightlife, cultural shows, and festivals.
Travel Agencies and Tour Operators – packaged tours, circuit planning, and inbound logistics.
Domestic tourists spend heavily on shopping, food, and land transport, while international visitors allocate more to accommodation, air travel, and packaged tours. Balikbayans remain unique, spreading their spending across all categories due to longer stays.
Yet PIDS warns of tourism leakages: imported goods dominate souvenir markets, foreign-owned resorts capture profits, and weak local supply chains limit multiplier effects. Without stronger linkages, much of this spending fails to benefit local communities.
Regional innovation, local resilience
DESPITE slow national recovery, regional focus group discussions (FGDs) revealed a sector actively innovating from the ground up. Luzon stakeholders are strengthening eco-adventure and heritage corridors; Visayas stakeholders are developing wellness, experiential, and education tourism clusters; while Mindanao stakeholders are advancing agro-cultural, faith-based, and indigenous wellness products.
These initiatives align with the NTDP 2023-2028 agenda for multi-regional, high-value, and inclusive tourism. They demonstrate that while national-level data may show tempered growth, local diversification is accelerating.
MSMEs and accreditation challenges
Accreditation emerged as a critical issue. MSMEs, which comprise 99 percent of the industry, often struggle with compliance burdens and see little value in accreditation. Uptake remains low.
PIDS recommends tiered and incentive-based accreditation models, digitalized compliance systems, and expanded capacity-building programs to support MSMEs in transitioning toward a digitally enabled, AI-ready tourism ecosystem.
Roadmap to 2028 and beyond
The report outlines a phased roadmap:
Short-run (2024-2026): Fix the basics – seamless travel, last-mile access, interoperable booking, standardized LGU reporting, and data governance.
Medium-run (2026-2028): Scale competitive and inclusive products – fast-track visitor experience enhancements, commercialize validated circuits, and strengthen continuity of branding.
Long-run (2028 onwards): Future-proof transformation – smart destination systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, AI-enabled tourism services, and globally recognized excellence.
Domestic strength, international lag
THE Philippines leads Asean in domestic tourism, accounting for 32.9 percent of receipts (USD 52.1 billion in 2023).
‘This underscores the robustness and scale of domestic travel in the Philippines, signifying its critical role in driving national economic activity.’
Yet internationally, the country lags. Thailand generated USD 34.1 billion in international receipts in 2023, while the Philippines managed only USD 11.3 billion, ranking fifth in ASEAN. Returning Filipinos (balikbayans) remain a resilient segment, staying nearly twice as long as foreign visitors.
Tourism slogans: Promise and fragmentation
Tourism branding has shifted with each administration:
WOW Philippines (2002): Celebrated diversity and vibrancy.
It’s More Fun in the Philippines (2012): Centered on Filipino warmth and humor; achieved strong global recall.
Love the Philippines (2023): Emphasized stewardship, sustainability, and national pride.
While each campaign had merits, frequent changes have fragmented the country’s global image. Unlike Thailand’s ‘Amazing Thailand’ or Malaysia’s ‘Truly Asia,’ the Philippines has yet to sustain a coherent brand that transcends political cycles.
Call for reform
RIVERA, Bolalin, and Ocbina urge Congress to move from symbolic acts to substantive laws. Among their proposals:
Tourism Competitiveness and Innovation Act – institutionalizing digital transformation and green standards.
Tourism Resilience and Climate Adaptation Act – mandating disaster risk management and insurance.
Tourism Human Capital Act – aligning skills training with ASEAN benchmarks.
Tourism Circuit Development Act – incentivizing multi-LGU clusters and infrastructure corridors.
TIEZA Charter revisions – expanding PPP models and local investment portfolios.
As one stakeholder affirmed: ‘Our people are already world-class, the system just needs to catch up.’
Recovery to reinvention
The PIDS report affirms that the Philippines is well-positioned to move from recovery to reinvention. Regions are pioneering innovations aligned with the NTDP 2023-2028 agenda, MSMEs are seeking digital onboarding, and stakeholders are calling for convergence across government, private sector, and academia.
Yet without structural reforms-modernizing RA 9593, embedding value-chain integration, and institutionalizing smart-destination systems-the sector risks falling.