The Travel Industry Is The Second Biggest Contributor Of GDP, Now It Needs Your Support

With the entire country now in GCQ, and commercial travel set to resume soon, DOT Sec. Berna Romulo Puyat discusses how technology and a little bit of nationalism can help the travel industry

- Krizette Chu

Many naysayers—and there have been many—question the importance of the Department of Tourism at a time when commercial and leisure travel are nil: “Why the big budget?” “So why are we earmarking the biggest budget to the DOT when there’s zero travel now?” “What are they doing anyway?”

The DOT, arguably the most glamorous department, has been busy with less-than-glitzy pursuits. As of May 28, since ECQ started, it has assisted 27,590 foreign and 9,288 domestic stranded tourists, making sure that they get home through all means possible and that they’re booked in decent lodging, coordinating with local government units and national agencies for border passages, and then distributing Tourist Care Vouchers and Tourist Care Kits.

“While travel and tourism is deemed as ‘non-essential’ under quarantine measures worldwide, it is a significant economic driver for nations that are tourism-dependent such as the Philippines,” Sec. Berna Puyat tells Manila Bulletin Lifestyle. Tourism contributed 12.7 percent of the country’s GDP in 2018—the country’s second largest, and employs 5.4 million jobs, or a 13 percent share in the country’s total employment.

The “big budget” its critics have continually hit on was DOT’s budget pre-Covid-19 and were existing funds of the DOT, but the amount has been reverted to the national budget upon the passage of the Bayanihan Act.

The department has crafted the Tourism Response and Recovery Program (TRRP), an umbrella program to develop continuity plans, provide financial assistance to the industry’s stakeholders and players, and increase tourist confidence to travel again.