The impressive ranking of the Philippines as the world’s fourth fastest growing economy in 2021 was one of the topics at the recently concluded Routes Asia 2022 held at the Da Nang International Exhibition Fair Centre, Vietnam last week.
“Despite the travel restrictions caused by COVID-19, Philippine tourism saw some significant recovery contributing 10.4 percent to GDP in 2021 – thanks to our people-centered initiatives which aimed, first and foremost, to keep our tourism workers safe and sustain our MSMEs,” Department of Tourism (DOT) Undersecretary Woodrow C. Maquiling, Jr. said during the Routes Asia “Panel Trends Discussion: Tourism Rebound – Future Travel” quoting the World Travel & Tourism Council’s latest Economic Impact Report.
Speaking before senior decision-makers from leading regional carriers, representatives from trade associations, airline boards of directors, airports, and government ministries, the Undersecretary opened the discussions tackling the DOT’s calculated strategies that included its massive vaccination of tourism workers, investment in human capital, and provision of soft loans to small business players as key to the industry’s remarkable recovery.
He said, “It is essential that we recover in tourism because it translates to national recovery. With direct, indirect and induced effects, we have achieved as much as 22.5 percent of tourism’s contribution to the country’s GDP pre-pandemic,” referring to the tourism sector’s contribution of US$92.6 billion to the nation’s economy before COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Amanda Byrne, General Manager at Queensland Airports, underscored how they have kept their market “warm” by capitalizing on domestic-driven campaign “Holiday Here This Year” which encouraged Australians to support tourism operators and communities around the country by planning a domestic holiday.
Asked what important lesson COVID-19 has taught airlines, Jay Lingeswara of VietJet Air was vocal in emphasizing that in “every crisis there is opportunity” which led the international low-cost airline to invest heavily on its digital marketing.
Phillip Nguyen, Chief Executive Officer of IPP Travel Retail, agreed that new opportunities include consumer trends and behaviors, referring to the current market in Asia as our “most lucrative ones” right now.
Now on its 18th edition, Routes Asia is the premiere event for airports, airlines, tourism authorities, policy leaders, keynote speakers and exhibitors to meet, do business and plan for the future.
