TOURISM IN THE PHILIPPINES

Recently I saw this Tourism chart, I don't how accurate it is. Remember when the saying was: Don't believe anything you hear and only half what you see, well with IT, Social Media & News Reporting who knows what.Well AnywaysTourism from January through August this year here are the numbers.(1) Malaysia 28.2 M(2) Thailand 21.9 M(3) Vietnam 13.9 M(4) Singapore 11.6 M(5) Indonesia 10 M(6) Philippines 4 MOut of that 4 M, 3.9 M came for the aerobics. - @Enzyte Bob

I have seen several videos expressing this. The Philippines is at the bottom. AI confirms my suspicion about the main reason for the drop: Covid19. Other countries recovered by we did not.

1. COVID-19 Pandemic & Slow Recovery 

   - This was the initial shock that collapsed arrivals worldwide. 

   - The Philippines imposed some of the strictest and longest border closures in Southeast Asia, which delayed recovery compared to neighbors like Thailand and Vietnam. 

   - Even after reopening, the country struggled to regain momentum because travelers had already shifted to destinations that reopened earlier and marketed aggressively."

It just may be the case that Tourism is not a primary focus here anymore. There is no more mass marketing for international tourists such as "WOW Philippines".

Not sure how you get to that conclusion about Covid, Dan - it is losing status as a tourist destination due to all the issues that never get resolved and which have been aired online ad-nauseum -  high prices for food and lodging relative to other nearby countries, poor infrastructure, difficult travel logistics, trash problems and more.

For those of us who have made it home, it has stunning beauty and many benefits which balance out the problems, and we learn to have patience, but that's probably not enough for many tourists.

Not sure how you get to that conclusion about Covid, Dan - it is losing status as a tourist destination due to all the issues that never get resolved and which have been aired online ad-nauseum - high prices for food and lodging relative to other nearby countries, poor infrastructure, difficult travel logistics, trash problems and more.
For those of us who have made it home, it has stunning beauty and many benefits which balance out the problems, and we learn to have patience, but that's probably not enough for many tourists. - @pnwcyclist

I see your point, however, tourism has never returned to pre-pandemic levels so, based on that, might someone suspect that the pandemic had something to do with it? And understand that Chinese and Korean tourists number much higher than Westerners yet you do not mention the pandemic cancelation of e-visas for Chinese or crimes against Koreans to the point where their government has published travel warnings. The Philippine government seems to take no effort to resolve those. These 2 things had a large effect and actually, the things you mention are very true but they were also true back when Philippine tourism was high, pre-covid.

Here in Boracay we have an airport which is only a few miles away. However,  the length of the runway does not allow international flights or flights with Boeing aircraft. So you need to go thru the chaotic airport of Manila to come here. Next you need to take a van or a tricycle to the jetty port. A small ferry with a steep footbridge awaits you. Not very pleasant when you are older. Next comes a 10 minutes ride to Boracay island. There awaits you another steep footbridge to go up to the port where you can take a bus or etrike to your hotel or condo. There you discover that the beach is nice but not better than the beaches in Florida or Mexico. Most people are not coming back after this experience. So, tourism in Boracay is for the people of the Philippines and not for foreigners anymore. There are foreigners but their number is very limited. Most of them have partners from the Philippines.

Happy new Year

Andy from Boracay (9 years in the Philippines)

@Enzyte Bob

Out of that 4 M, 3.9 M came for the aerobics.

😂😂😂

Here in Boracay we have an airport which is only a few miles away. However, the length of the runway does not allow international flights or flights with Boeing aircraft. So you need to go thru the chaotic airport of Manila to come here. Next you need to take a van or a tricycle to the jetty port. A small ferry with a steep footbridge awaits you. Not very pleasant when you are older. Next comes a 10 minutes ride to Boracay island. There awaits you another steep footbridge to go up to the port where you can take a bus or etrike to your hotel or condo. There you discover that the beach is nice but not better than the beaches in Florida or Mexico. Most people are not coming back after this experience. So, tourism in Boracay is for the people of the Philippines and not for foreigners anymore. There are foreigners but their number is very limited. Most of them have partners from the Philippines.
Happy new Year
Andy from Boracay (9 years in the Philippines) - @Andy_1963

Well yes and no. Be careful what you wish for. Agreed the access to the island is restrictive but the extension of the airport runway to allow large intercontinental jets to fly in direct would be the ruination of what was once a secluded escape.  Unlike for example Bohol there is only one beach. How many people can you cram onto a beach?

One potential disaster in the making is the new airport planned for Dumaguete. Would you honestly say that Sibulan has reached maximum capacity? Plans have been submitted to build a new airport in Bacong which sits beside Dauin and some beautiful beaches coupled with many dive resorts. Once the project gets started the southern highway will become clogged with construction and supply vehicles for years. When the jets start arriving you won't be enjoying that Cubre Libre in silence anymore. The prevailing winds are either SW or NE so you will have the choice of aircraft either taking off or landing.

My neighbour has a property in Dauin and is looking to sell the land for development while he can. My hunch is its too late. Several dive resorts have already closed but not because of access.

Yes the Philippines needs to improve its infrastructure but without the cack handed planning that goes with it.

I actually love Boracay and have visited twice. I do understand what Andy said about the difficulty of getting there but the last time I visited (November), I paid the premium for a resort transfer and everything ran smoothly. Of course the charge for me was higher than my filipina girlfriend and that grates a bit. We flew in from Cebu and not Manila. I actually like to stay in Boracay or any other tourist spot longer than most people recommend so I can have a couple of lazy days just swimming in the ocean or pool after I have done the Island Hopping tour and the adventure stuff.

For me as a tourist who visits yearly it is about not taking on too much  and finding time to relax besides doing all the normal tourist things so I tend to fly to my girlfriends home city and take a couple of trips from there during my 3 to 4 weeks there. I would never follow one of the video itineraries I see where they try to pack in so many different Islands in a 2 or 3 week tour, simply too much for me.

The infrastructure is bad, the roads are full of pot holes making what seems like a short journey long, trikes and jeepneys pull up anywhere and slow traffic, accommodation prices are high and transportation costs more than in neighbouring countries. The offers that Cebu Pacific put out are not great either when taxes and extras are added on and a price of 600 pesos can easily end up being 4k plus. One of the reasons I have never been to Palawan is that I have heard people talking about long coach rides to get from the airport to the hotel or resort. Resort and other fees are also a pain. On my recent visit to Moalboal we reached a check point near the resort and had to pay a fee. In my opinion the food is way inferior to other countries also and Red Horse tastes like piss. I once went into an Irish Bar in Makati and guess what, no Guinness. Ordering food and been told five minutes later it is not available is also a bug bear of mine and ordering food in a group when the last dish comes about 20 minutes after the first. How difficult is it to blank food items out that are not available or put a line through the item with a marker pen on the menu?

I don’t believe the Philippines has ever been a big tourism destination. It’s like Australia, where large-scale tourism by foreigners is basically a myth of the tourist industry and which they justify using the inflated figures of “foreign arrivals” which of course include many people who are not tourists at all. I love the Philippines and live here most of the year but as a tourism destination it doesn’t compare to the regional juggernauts of Thailand and Malaysia and it doesn’t stack up against Vietnam either to be honest.

I don’t believe the Philippines has ever been a big tourism destination. It’s like Australia, where large-scale tourism by foreigners is basically a myth of the tourist industry and which they justify using the inflated figures of “foreign arrivals” which of course include many people who are not tourists at all. I love the Philippines and live here most of the year but as a tourism destination it doesn’t compare to the regional juggernauts of Thailand and Malaysia and it doesn’t stack up against Vietnam either to be honest. - @Brojeslov

In 2019 so-called "tourist" arrivals were 8.26M and 6 years later, 3 years after the pandemic ended, the Phils is 4M, less than half of pre-pandemic levels. But even 8M wasn't that great which agrees with what you said. Clearly, something has made it worse. Even so, authorities have made SRRV more expensive and eliminated the 6 month tourist extension indicating a less aggressive approach to welcoming foreigners as it was during the Wow Philippines programs and "It's better in the Philippines". Now it seems they largely gave up on the marketing, seemingly relying more on OFW income and in-country tourism as we watch the Peso with less foreign reserves, generated by foreigners, inflate over the 1st world currencies.

I don’t believe the Philippines has ever been a big tourism destination. It’s like Australia, where large-scale tourism by foreigners is basically a myth of the tourist industry and which they justify using the inflated figures of “foreign arrivals” which of course include many people who are not tourists at all. I love the Philippines and live here most of the year but as a tourism destination it doesn’t compare to the regional juggernauts of Thailand and Malaysia and it doesn’t stack up against Vietnam either to be honest. - @Brojeslov

Apples and oranges mate, Australia is a very expensive destination as a tourist compared to many Asian destinations but  country with only 27M souls seems to attract near 8M tourists per year.

Thing is in S/E Asia it is cheaper to visit on a budget like many world countries. Yep done lots of the touristy things here as well as Europe and the good old USA and plenty of destinations over 40 years but. Over the last 15 years all the tourist things but we live here now  for 7 years and not for the tourism but a happy life in a great country and people.

Cheers, Steve.

Yeah Dan agree, what ever happened to "more fun in the Philippines" that was flogged to death. There are far better destinations but iff you have a Filipino partner the choice becomes clearer.

Yep, my annual visitor visa have gone up P6K per year and my ECC is now 1,000 instead of P500. In the scheme of things things still very affordable but I wonder if I will be turned away when I get back from Japan for my next 3 years on a visitor visa...... We will see in February.

Yep the SRRV has gone up 50% and one wonders at the clutching at straws, a bit like the hikes in PhilHealth?  Even my better half and our worker rose from 2400 to 6,000 over a few years and me? Now 17K up from memory from 5 or 6K,,,,,,, we won't get into the politics nor thefts that occurred to push these rises and I'll not say more.

I have seen living here for 7 years that our cost of living has risen from a comfortable 90K per month to now 120K per month, a far cry from 15 years ago. Anyway we are still here and entrenched and live with the hikes we do.

It would certainly make me reconsider the Philippines as a tourist destination but OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

Yeah Dan agree, what ever happened to "more fun in the Philippines" that was flogged to death. There are far better destinations but iff you have a Filipino partner the choice becomes clearer.
Yep, my annual visitor visa have gone up P6K per year and my ECC is now 1,000 instead of P500. In the scheme of things things still very affordable but I wonder if I will be turned away when I get back from Japan for my next 3 years on a visitor visa...... We will see in February.
Yep the SRRV has gone up 50% and one wonders at the clutching at straws, a bit like the hikes in PhilHealth? Even my better half and our worker rose from 2400 to 6,000 over a few years and me? Now 17K up from memory from 5 or 6K,,,,,,, we won't get into the politics nor thefts that occurred to push these rises and I'll not say more.
I have seen living here for 7 years that our cost of living has risen from a comfortable 90K per month to now 120K per month, a far cry from 15 years ago. Anyway we are still here and entrenched and live with the hikes we do.
It would certainly make me reconsider the Philippines as a tourist destination but OMO.

Cheers, Steve. - @bigpearl

You know, if there is a lot of media exposure to tourist complaints of trash in the streets, blackouts, expensive hotels, unreliable ferries, attacks on Koreans, difficult travel and other things that just make them look bad, the answer may be that they don't have the resources to fix this so stop encouraging more foreign tourists to refuce complaints. Take the tourist "L", lose the foreign reserves and let the peso inflate and concentrate on doing things to keep the voters happy and voting, most of whom don't care for foreign tourists that much anyway. In my experience Filipino resorts prefer Filipino tourists and tend to serve native foods in their restaurants, have 3 inch mattresses and no AC, except for high ticket resorts owned by foreigners in places like Boracay and San Juan Siquijor and perhaps Panglao Bohol. Tourism travel seems mostly geared to local tourists except for such places which are few and far between. Boracay, Panglao, Palawan and Siquijor just aren't apparently enough to lure high income travelers away from the other SE Asian countries.

I guess  visitors get more Bang for their Buck in Thailand.

Thailand 21.9 Million

Philippines 4 million.

@Enzyte Bob

Ha Ha BOOM BOOM

@bigpearl

Alas the 8m figure, commonly quoted by the Australian tourism industry, is total foreign arrivals, not tourists. Tourists are estimated around half that. But Australia is a long way from anywhere, requires extensive domestic travel to visit the popular sites, is expensive etc. Maybe we’re doing well for 4m tourists

@Andy_1963 I will be visiting Boracay after a month in Cebu. Noticed the logistics needed to get from the airport to the beach resort. At least I am three years younger than you are so am OK with getting some steps in. Perhaps I should have made the travel logistics easier on myself by going to Bohol instead as getting to Chiang Mai from Cebu is a heck of a lot easier than from Boracay.

@Enzyte Bob
Ha Ha BOOM BOOM - @Lotus Eater

Well the original post did state that 3.9M of the 4M visitors are here for the aerobics. Lets hope it’s no where near that high but walking around Cebu it does seem to be common.

Dear chatGPT.com (for the Philippines Forum on expat.com)

Please consider how the Philippines can best increase tourism?

For example .. "Tourism from January through August this year, here are the numbers.

(1) Malaysia 28.2 M

(2) Thailand 21.9 M

(3) Vietnam 13.9 M

(4) Singapore 11.6 M

(5) Indonesia 10 M

(6) Philippines 4 M"

chatGPT AI response:

Here’s a clear, strategic look at how the Philippines can best increase tourism, using the numbers you shared as context. The gap is large — especially compared to Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam — but also shows massive upside potential if key barriers are addressed.

🇵🇭 Why the Philippines Lags Behind: Core Structural Issues

Compared to regional peers, the Philippines faces several well-known systemic disadvantages:

1. Weak international air connectivity

Fewer direct international flights

High landing/airport fees

Congestion in NAIA limiting capacity

Overreliance on Manila instead of developing Cebu/Davao/Clark as true international hubs

2. Infrastructure Gaps

Slow inter-island transport

Poor last-mile connectivity (ports → hotels → attractions)

Limited airport quality outside major cities

3. Safety, cleanliness, and urban organization issues

Tourist-facing areas (Manila, Cebu City) often have negative first impressions

Issues with scams, traffic, waste management

4. Weak branding and global promotion

“It’s More Fun in the Philippines” is iconic locally but has limited global penetration

Competitors spend far more on tourism marketing

5. High travel cost relative to experience

Domestic flights are expensive

Hotel pricing has risen faster than quality

🇵🇭 What the Philippines Should Do to Rapidly Boost Tourism

1. Build International Air Hubs (Cebu + Clark)

Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia succeed because tourists can land anywhere seamlessly.

Key actions:

Expand Cebu as the main tourist-entry airport (like Bali’s Denpasar)

Develop Clark as the low-cost regional hub

Reduce NAIA dependency

Lower aviation taxes and airport fees

Incentivize direct flights from China, Korea, Japan, Australia, and Europe

Impact: +1–2M tourists per year within 3 years.

2. Fix First Impressions: Clean, Safe, Organized Tourist Zones

Tourists judge a country first by the airport, taxis, and city streets they see.

Immediate upgrades:

Clean up and modernize Manila Bay, Intramuros areas

Tourist police with visible presence

Crackdowns on scams (airport taxis, transportation mafias)

Mandatory tourist-friendly transport pricing

Thailand improved drastically using this exact formula.

3. Develop “Tourist Triangles” Like Thailand’s Bangkok–Chiang Mai–Phuket

The Philippines needs clear “routes” instead of scattered islands.

Examples:

✦ Luzon Triangle: Manila – Baguio – La Union

✦ Visayas Triangle: Cebu – Bohol – Siquijor

✦ Mindanao Triangle: Davao – Siargao – Samal

Packages like these make planning easy and increase length of stay.

4. Market the Philippines as a Premium Nature & Island Destination

The Philippines has the best beaches in ASEAN (El Nido, Boracay, Siargao) but is poorly marketed globally.

Solutions:

Target Instagram/TikTok-driven campaigns (like Bali did)

Invite top 500 global influencers for long-term stays

Rebrand: “Asia’s Last Paradise” or “The World’s Best Islands”

5. Fix Domestic Transport: Affordable, Reliable Island Connectivity

Right now, island travel is:

Expensive

Unpredictable

Overbooked

Improvements:

Regulate domestic flight pricing

Fast ferry modernization

Public-private partnerships for inter-island routes

6. Boost Cruise Tourism

The Philippines has 7,641 islands, but only a few cruise-ready ports.

Next steps:

Upgrade ports in Manila, Subic, Laoag, Cebu, Davao

Offer tax incentives for cruise ships to homeport in the Philippines

Cruise passengers can add 1M+ tourists quickly.

7. Simplify the Visa Processes

Consider:

Visa-on-arrival expansion

Visa-free entry for more European/Asian countries

6-month digital nomad visa (like Indonesia)

ASEAN-wide travel pass participation

8. Develop Niche Tourism Industries

High-growth segments where the Philippines has a natural advantage:

✔ Dive Tourism (Apo Reef, Tubbataha)

✔ Surf Tourism (Siargao)

✔ English-learning tourism (Japan, Korea, China)

✔ Medical tourism (Cosmetic, Dental)

✔ Retiree tourism (like Malaysia’s MM2H program)

These are high-spending, long-stay tourists.

🇵🇭 Realistic Growth Target

With strong reforms, the Philippines can move from 4M → 10M tourists within 5–7 years.

Projection example:

+2M from improved air connectivity

+2M from branding + influencers

+1M from cruise tourism

+1M from visa simplification

+1M from niche tourism segments

+1M from restored Chinese and Korean markets

🇵🇭 Bottom Line

If the Philippines focused on:

better air access,

cleaner and safer tourist areas,

high-quality branding, and

easier travel logistics,

…it could easily catch up with Vietnam and Indonesia — and eventually challenge Thailand.

If you’d like, I can also prepare:

📌 A 10-year tourism strategy for the Philippines

📌 A comparison chart with the 6 countries

📌 A SWOT analysis

📌 A detailed “Tourist Journey Map” identifying top friction points

Just let me know!

--

What I think effects the tourism industry negatively is the amount of overseas filipinos.  They are coming back to visit family and dont use much of the tourism infrastructure.  They are willing to accept what is available as the main goal is to visit family.   With tens of millions of overseas workers and persons who have immigrated, the airlines have a large market without tourist.   

@Andy_1963 I will be visiting Boracay after a month in Cebu. Noticed the logistics needed to get from the airport to the beach resort. At least I am three years younger than you are so am OK with getting some steps in. Perhaps I should have made the travel logistics easier on myself by going to Bohol instead as getting to Chiang Mai from Cebu is a heck of a lot easier than from Boracay. - @tlllava

I do not think you will have a problem getting from Cebu to Boracay. I did the same journey in November and everything  went smoothly. I did arrange the transfer through the resort though to make it easier and that cut out having to stand in line to pay the Terminal Fee and Environmental Fee and there was a representative of the resort at the airport to meet me on arrival.

One thing I will mention is that when my girlfriend and I decided to do some adventure sports like the zip wire, that involved another ferry ride and mini van drive.

To put the transfer from the airport to the resort into perspective - Even though there are a few different legs to the journey via ferry, trike, mini bus - the amount of time the transfer takes from the airport to the resort was less than 2 hours for me. I have had longer coach transfers on holidays in Europe.