President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday approved the National Tourism Development Plan for 2023-2028, which will serve as a blueprint for the country’s tourism industry.
At a Palace briefing, Tourism Secretary Ma. Esperanza Christina Garcia-Frasco announced the plan’s approval at a sectoral meeting.
“This NTDP is the result of consultation among the Tourism Coordinating Council as well as our various tourism stakeholders from our regions all over the Philippines. The NTDP shall serve as the blueprint and the development framework for the tourism industry for the duration of the Marcos administration,” she said.
The Tourism chief said the plan focuses on giving the Philippines a chance to become a “tourism powerhouse.”
“These objectives involve not simply the promotion of the Philippines, which we will continue domestically and internationally but also, more importantly, addressing the essential issues of tourism development, including the development of infrastructure, connectivity, as well as digitalization, the equalization of tourism product development and promotion, the enhancement of the overall tourism experience as well as the strengthening of tourism governance,” Frasco said.
Frasco said the plan would also serve as a guide for regions across the Philippines “to spread countrywide development through tourism,” adding that this will also provide jobs to Filipinos.
Frasco said the tourism industry earned P1.74 trillion in 2022 as a composite of domestic visitor seats as well as foreign visitor receipts and also generated at least 5.2 million local jobs.
By 2028, the DOT expects to have accumulated a total of 51.9 million tourist arrivals and 34.7 million tourism-related jobs.
Department Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy promised that the agency would extend support to DOT on this tourism plan, specifically on connection issues.
“The DICT’s role here is to really support the Department of Tourism in its effort in establishing the Philippines as one of the primary tourist destinations around the world. And one of the challenges really in promoting and establishing that position for the Philippines is its issues on digitalization and connectivity,” Uy said.
“Secretary Frasco provided us initially with the list of about 94 tourist destinations that have connectivity challenges,” Uy said. He said in a few months, 46 of these representing major tourist sites would enjoy free internet connectivity.
The Tourism Department and DICT will also coordinate with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Bureau of Immigration for the ease of access for inbound tourist passengers to the Philippines through an e-visa system.
Uy also said that the program is just the initial stage of the digitalization of the country.
“We will continue to look for ways of improving the digitalization of our infrastructure, as well as connectivity, to support all the different departments of the government,” Uy said.
