Tourism is uplifting livelihoods in the Northern Philippines

The Department of Tourism in Cordillera Administrative Region (DOT-CAR) in the Northern Philippines reports that the growing number of tourists in the region is uplifting the lives of their people.

At a media event held in Baguio City today, 12th March, DOT-CAR director Jovita Ganongan remarked that greater tourist numbers have translated into economic gains.

CAR received a total of 1,983,511 tourists in different destinations across its six provinces and two cities in 2024.

The number is significantly higher than the 1.68 million reported in 2023 and 1.28 million in 2022. 

Significant earnings

Ganongan said that based on the average daily expenditure of a foreign and a domestic tourist of PHP7,000 and PHP4,000 respectively, the region received PHP10.72 billion in receipts from tourism.

She said: “This is just a one-day computation but a tourist spends an average of two to three days in a destination. The economic contribution of tourism is seen from the jobs generated and the opportunities created from tourism.”

Ganongan explained that expenditures for tourists in any place translates to opportunities for the residents. 

She said: “Tourists require a bed to sleep on and a place to eat food. They also look for souvenirs to buy for their friends and loved ones. All these opportunities translate to livelihood activities which in turn creates local jobs.”

Ganongan added that Ifugao, Kalinga, and the Mountain Province are top destinations for Europeans, while American tourists prefer Baguio City.

French visitors topped the region’s foreign arrivals in 2024 with 8,829; Americans at 5,325; and Germans, 4,706. 

Ganongan added that with the robust tourism in different regions, the government also invests in terms of infrastructure. 

She said a total of 376.33 kilometers of tourism road infrastructure projects were built at the cost of PHP11.47 trillion from 2012 to 2024. 

Ganongan concluded with: “The government through the DOT is not just investing in infrastructure but also in the capacity building and human resource development to further boost the Filipino brand of service for domestic and for foreign tourists.”