RP names pilot areas for TSA

The Philippines has identified eight pilot destinations to implement the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) to overhaul the data gathering system for tourism in Cebu, Bohol, Boracay, Palawan, Iloilo, Aklan, Oriental Negros, and Negros Occidental.

Department of Tourism (DOT) secretary Joseph Ace Durano said that next year the TSA system will be fully implemented in these areas with the support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

"We are going to fast track the overhauling of the data gathering system, through JICA's support, because there are still funds left from the JICA-supported project in Palawan," said Durano.

In the next few months, or early next year, experts will be deployed in these identified hot tourism areas in the Philippines, providing training to Local Government Units (LGUs) tourism executives, and statisticians in changing the way they are collecting indicators of the tourism industry.

With this move, the Philippines will get ahead in this world-class statistical data gathering in tourism, catching up with France, Canada, Australia and Spain.

This new international tourism satellite account (TSA) standard was developed in 2000 by the public/private sector Experts Committee under the auspices of the World Tourism Organization as interpreted and operated by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC)/WEFA.

Tourism is an activity that has grown substantially over the last twenty-five years as an economic and social phenomenon. However, statistical information on the nature, progress and consequences of tourism is mainly based on arrivals and overnight stay statistics as well as balance of payment, which do not grasp the whole economic phenomenon of tourism.

Today, there is an increasing awareness of the role that tourism is playing and can play, whether directly, indirectly or through induced effects in the economy in terms of generation of value-added employment, personal income, government income, among others.

Thus, Durano said the Philippines, which is banking on tourism as one of the major economic drivers should get ahead in this implementation, to give clearer picture to every Filipino, how the tourism industry has helped and impacted their everyday living. More so, policy makers, and government finance department shall see the importance of the sector as economic booster.

According to Xu Jing, regional representative for Asia and the Pacific of UN-WTO, only few countries in Asia have started to prepare the TSA method, like Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The Philippines on the other hand, is expected to fully implement this first, with its active partnership with JICA, Xu said.

"Never in the history of Asia, that the government is paying much attention in tourism," Xu said. With the TSA which will gauge the true economic contribution and impact of the entire tourism sector to a country's economy, governments are expected to provide more sufficient funds for tourism programs.

Each government should realize that tourism is an effective weapon to fight against extreme poverty, Xu said. – Ehda M. Dagooc