MANILA, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The tourism sector contributed 6.2 percent of the Philippines' gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday.
Inbound tourism expenditure posted the highest growth in 2022, from 27.63 billion pesos (roughly 492.84 million U.S. dollars) in 2021 to 368.67 billion pesos (roughly 6.58 billion U.S. dollars), the PSA said.
Domestic tourism expenditure grew by 92.3 percent, reaching 1.50 trillion pesos (approximately 26.75 billion U.S. dollars).
In 2022, employment in the tourism sector also improved. Tourism industry jobs were estimated at 5.35 million, higher by 9.3 percent compared with 4.90 million in 2021, the PSA said. The share of employment in tourism industries to total employment in the country in 2022 was 11.4 percent.
As a key economic driver in the Southeast Asian country, the tourism industry's contribution to the GDP stood at 12.7 percent in 2019. However, the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a severe blow to the tourism sector, slashing foreign arrivals and displacing almost 1.1 million service workers nationwide. ■
