Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco is pushing for a proposed 2026 budget of over P3.5 billion for the Department of Tourism (DOT), defending the figure as a necessary investment to sustain the sector’s recovery despite growing political scrutiny and funding cuts in the past two years.
Of the total proposal, P3.1 billion would cover the Office of the Secretary and all regional operations, with the remainder allocated to the department’s attached agencies.
Frasco said the request reflects the DOT’s intensified efforts to support tourism development nationwide and prove its impact through measurable results.
“We fully intend to report to Congress the accomplishments that have been made by the DOT and our attached agencies with the government funding we have been provided, and to establish the fact that the investments made in the tourism industry have yielded very concrete results,” Frasco said during a media briefing Thursday.
Her remarks follow pointed questioning from several lawmakers during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) deliberations, where the DOT faced criticism.
“If we limit our appreciation of the proposals to the facts and not take politics into account, then we are confident that our budget will be approved,” she said.
Backed by data from the DOT’s Economic Analysis and Information Division, Frasco highlighted the sector’s economic contributions.
From January to May 2025, the country earned an estimated $4.2 billion, or P242 billion, in international tourism receipts. International arrivals hit 3,473,726 as of July 30, 2025, with 90.86 percent being foreign visitors and the remainder overseas Filipinos.
Internal tourism spending, which includes both international and domestic visitor receipts, has now surpassed pre-pandemic levels, reaching 103% of 2019 figures. Domestic tourism alone is valued at over $66.2 billion, based on data from the World Travel and Tourism Council.
“Tourism is so vast an industry that our view of its beneficiaries cannot be limited to those formally employed,” she said, citing government data that the sector employed 6.75 million full-time workers in 2024, up 6.1 percent from 6.37 million in 2023. Indirect employment numbered over 16.4 million.
