Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Officials of the Department of Tourism (DOT) on Thursday justified the agency’s proposed P2.63 billion budget for 2013, nearly double this year’s allocation, saying the amount was necessary to jump-start an ambitious plan to constantly increase foreign tourist arrivals in the country to culminate in 10 million arrivals in 2016.
Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez said at the House budget hearing that DOT’s proposed budget for 2013 would be used for programs and activities intended to promote the country and improve services for the 5.5 million foreign tourists targeted for the year.
The country’s tourism program would be marked by a convergence of efforts of the DOT, local governments, and other government agencies to improve products, services and infrastructure, Jimenez said.
This convergence, he said, showed that tourism was no longer just another economic activity in the Philippines, or something that is done on the side. “It will be managed and planned as a national industry,” he said.
Tourism Undersecretary Daniel Corpuz noted that the 2013 budget was over 90 percent higher than the DOT’s 2012 budget of P1.38 billion.
“The ambitious target of increasing arrivals by one million will also require an ambitious budget,” Corpuz said.
The 2013 target of 5.5 million tourists is one million higher than the 2012 foreign arrivals of 4.6 million.
Corpuz told lawmakers that 2.5 million foreign visitors had come to the country as of July. He said that the DOT expected to achieve its 4.6 million target for 2012 during the visitor surge in the last quarter of this year.
Most of the expected visitors would come from Korea, he added.
“2013 hopefully will be a banner year for the tourism industry. We hope to achieve what Secretary Jimenez calls sufficient momentum to propel the tourism industry to a target of 10 million by 2016. The target is ambitious but we feel confident,” Corpuz said.