NSCB - Philippine Tourism Satellite Account (PTSA)

Tourism has long been recognized as a major contributor to the country’s economic growth through the influx of foreign exchange earnings from tourism expenditures, investments, and revenues. Efforts to assess the economic significance of tourism in the Philippines has been carried out since 1988 when the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), thru its Grants-in-Aid statistical development program provided funds and technical assistance to the Department of Tourism (DOT) in conducting a study which found that using input-output analysis, tourism accounted for 2.8 percent of the economy in 1987. ¹

The following summarizes the development of a tourism satellite account for the Philippines after the initial efforts done in 1988:

1996

DOT and WTTC collaborated to come up with a simulated satellite account on tourism for the Philippines, which showed that travel and tourism accounted for 8.7 percent of the GDP in 1997
NSCB and DOT signed a MOA to support the development of the PTSA

1997

NSCB created an Inter-Agency Committee on the Development of a Satellite Account on Tourism (IAC-DSAT) that shall oversee the development of a TSA for the country
IAC-DSAT conceptualized the framework for the PTSA

1998

Participated in the Seventh Meeting of the Steering Committee, World Conference on the Measurement of the Economic Impact of Tourism, WTO Headquarters, Madrid, Spain

1999

NSCB and DOT forged a project that operationalized the PTSA conceptual framework
NSCB and DOT released the preliminary results of the Philippine Tourism Satellite Account (PTSA) covering the years 1994 and 1998.

2001

The Philippine experience in developing tourism satellite account was presented in a joint UN-ESCAP/WTO workshop in Thailand
The paper “Measuring the Contribution of Tourism to the Economy: The Philippine Tourism Satellite Account” was presented in the 8th National Convention on Statistics

2002

The Philippines participated in the First International Workshop on Tourism and the preparation of TSA in Madrid, Spain

2003

The Philippines hosted the “Second Sub-Regional Workshop on Tourism Statistics and the Elaboration of a Tourism Satellite Account” held in Manila. The country paper “Status of the Development of the Philippine Tourism Satellite Account (PTSA)” was presented in that workshop
The IACDSAT was reconstituted and renamed to Inter-agency Committee on Tourism Statistics (IACTS) per NSCB Memorandum Order No. 04 Series of 2003 to expand the functions of IAC from Tourism Accounts to Tourism Statistics

2005

The NSCB Executive Board approved the NSCB Resolution No. 4 Series of 2005 Approving and Adopting the Philippine Tourism Statistical Classification System (PTSCS)

2006

Presented the country paper “The 1993 Recommendations on Tourism Statistics and the Philippine Tourism Satellite Accounts” during the International Workshop on Tourism Statistics, UNWTO Headquarters, Madrid, Spain, 17-20 July 2006.

2007

Presented the paper “The Philippine Tourism Satellite Account” during the Workshop on Indicators of Sustainable Development for Tourism Destinations conducted in Bohol on 15-18 October 2007
Presented the paper “Measuring Health and Wellness Tourism in the Philippines” in the 10th National Convention on Statistics. EDSA Shangri-La Hotel, Manila
The Philippines participated in the worldwide consultation for the revision of the International Recommendations on Tourism Statistics (IRTS) and the Tourism Satellite Account: Recommended Methodological Framework (TSA: RMF) by providing series of responses to the questionnaires sent by the UNWTO
Participated in the UN Expert Group Meeting on Tourism Statistics

2008

Updated and refined the PTSA estimation using the IRTS 2008 and TSA: RMF 2008
Presented the paper “Developing the Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA): The Philippine Experience” in the technical workshop on Tourism Statistics and Tourism Satellite Accounts conducted by DOT in collaboration with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) on 21-22 October 2008 in Cebu City, 2008

2009

Participated in The Fifth UNWTO International Conference on Tourism Statistics held in Bali, Indonesia on 30 March – 2 April 2009
Presented the paper “Labor Policies for the Philippine Hospitality Industry”
Served as discussant for the keynote paper for Session III, Tourism Labour Market in the Asia Pacific Region Chaired the session on “Using TSA data for Business and Policy Analysis”
“Tourism as an Engine of Employment Creation, an “Statistically Speaking” article posted in NSCB website on April 13, 2009.

2010

The Philippines (NSCB and DOT) was invited (and the only country from the region to be invited) by the UNWTO to be a member of a newly created Technical Advisory Board (TAB) to the UNWTO Statistics and TSA Unit.
The Philippines participated in the UNWTO Statistics Capacity-building Programme for Asia-Pacific Region (2010-2011): Workshop I held in Bangkok, Thailand, 22-26 November 2010

2011

The Philippines participated in the UNWTO Statistics Capacity-building Programme for Asia-Pacific Region (2010-2011): Workshop II held in Manila on 4-6 July 2011
Recognized as a national and international leader on Tourism Statistics, the Philippines (NSCB Secretary General) was invited to be a steering committee member of the Committee on Tourism Statistics (COTS) in the International Statistics Institute (ISI)
Updated the PTSA estimates to 2000-2010 using the revised/rebased national accounts of the Philippines

¹Measuring the Contribution of Tourism to the Economy: The Philippine Tourism Satellite Account, a paper by Romulo A. Virola, Marriel M. Remulla, Lea H. Amoro and Milagros Y. Say presented during the 8th National Convention on Statistics, Westin Philippine Plaza, Manila, 1-2 October 2001.