Tourist arrivals, spending up

The number of foreign tourists visiting the country is increasing, along with the amount of dollars they are spending, Tourism Secretary Ace Durano told the House appropriations committee.

He said tourist arrivals from January to July this year were up 6.1 percent over the same period last year.

“The months of January, March and July registered the highest visitor volume, surpassing the previous records in the last three years,” he said.

Durano said “traditional markets” such as South Korea, the United States and Japan still account for the biggest arrivals, though “emerging markets” such as China are registering the highest increases over last year’s arrival levels.

He reported that during the January-July period, of the nearly two million foreign tourists who arrived in the country, 380,619 were Koreans, 366,662 Americans and 216,104 Japanese.

These numbers represent a small increment of less than two percent over last year, while tourists from China, numbering 102,653, increased by 18 percent, he said.

Clearly, China, with its population of more than one billion, is a fast growing market, he stressed.

According to Durano, tourist spending grew by an average of 37 percent over the last three years, making tourism one of the top dollar-earning sectors of the economy.

“We will hit $5 billion in tourist receipts by the end of the year, two years ahead of target,” he said.

During the hearing, Ifugao Rep. Solomon Chungalao appealed to Durano to save the Banawe rice terraces from extinction.

“Farmers have been abandoning the rice terraces because it is no longer economical for them to grow rice there. Their children do not want to tend the farms in the mountains,” he said.

He said he has been seeking funds to rehabilitate the rice terraces and make them a tourist attraction again but that his pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

“I am now about to graduate and I am still asking for those funds,” he said, referring to the fact that he is now on his third and last term.

Durano said he has included in his 2009 budget proposal P44 million for rebuilding the Banawe rice terraces, but that the Department of Budget and Management has scrapped such an amount.

“The DBM has its own priorities,” he said.

He said he has information that the Department of Agriculture has proposed P100 million for the same purpose.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, appropriations committee senior vice chairman, said he would suggest the allocation of a reasonable amount to save the terraces from extinction.