DOT disputes report claiming lowest ROI in Southeast Asia

The Department of Tourism (DOT) HAS disputed a policy report that claimed the country had the lowest return on tourism investment in Southeast Asia.

The report “relies on flawed methodology, questionable data, and misleading presentation that distort tourism’s true contribution to our economy and communities,” the DOT said in a statement on its Facebook page.

It called the report’s main finding, which used a “Return on Tourism Impact (RoTI)” metric, speculative and not recognized by multilateral bodies like UN Tourism, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) or the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The department provided its own data to counter the report.  It said tourism accounted for 8.9 percent of the Philippine economy in 2024, with a direct gross value added of P2.35 trillion, an 11.2-percent increase from 2023.

Inbound international tourism revenue reached a record P699.98 billion in 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Combined domestic and foreign tourism expenditure hit a historic high of P3.86 trillion, it said.

The DOTs aid the sector sustained 6.75 million direct jobs in 2024 and an additional 16 million indirect jobs.

Public and private sector investments in tourism were estimated at P590 billion in 2024.

The DOT also pointed out flaws in the report’s methodology, saying it compared multi-year investment figures with a single-year revenue estimate, which “produces meaningless ratios and misleading conclusions.”

It also questioned the report’s claim that the Duterte and Marcos administrations allocated about $23 billion over several years to tourism infrastructure and promotional programs, asking for the source of the data.

Another key issue cited was the report’s omission of domestic tourism, which the DOT said contributed about P3.1 trillion in 2024.

“Excluding this component grossly understates tourism’s true returns and distorts any purported ‘ROI’ calculation,” the DOT said.

DOT data showed that every peso invested in tourism in 2024 generated P5.50 in returns, resulting in a Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) of 5.5 and a return on investment of 4.5, or a 450-percent return in value beyond cost recovery.

“Tourism is therefore a high-yield engine of jobs, livelihoods, and national growth, not the laggard the report portrays,” the DOT said.

The department urged researchers and media to engage with them to ensure that Philippine tourism is “represented with balance and integrity.”