CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Tourism (DOT) is positive the country's tourism is on its way to recovery and expressed optimism in reaching - and even surpassing - industry targets for the year.

In the lastest leg of the Post-SONA Philippine Economic Briefing (PEB) Roadshow held at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco announced the country's foreign tourism receipts totalling Php 286 billion from January to July this year.

This figure, according to Frasco, is consistent with the over 66 percent tourism international arrivals recovery of the country being higher than the average ASEAN growth of 54 percent, based on the second UNWTO World Tourism Barometer on the Recovery by Region in Quarter 1 2023.

Tourism receipts from foreign and domestic visitors for 2022 amounted to Php 1.87 trillion showing the momentum towards the phenomenal tourism performance in the first half of 2023.

“These numbers are only seen to grow further especially that the Philippines has now fully opened up to tourism. We’re very grateful to our President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. for prioritizing tourism in his national development agenda,” the Tourism Secretary said.

Meanwhile, Frasco revealed that in terms of employment, the DOT recorded over 5.35 million individuals were given jobs in tourism-related industries in 2022, which is 93 percent of the industry's employment figures before the pandemic in 2019.

With this, the Secretary echoed the statement of the country's economic managers when they said the rebound of tourism growth is the second driver of economic development in the Philippines starting from January to June this year.

Mr. Charles Kenneth Co, President of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also joined and represented the private sector in the panel moderated by Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Undersecretary Margaux Marie Salcedo.