P40.705 Billion, Not P27.066 Billion As DOT Region 6 Adjust The 2014 Figures

P40.705 Billion, Not P27.066 

Billion As DOT Region 6 Adjust The 2014 Figures

by Odon Bandiola

The Department of Tourism Regional Office corrected the figures on total tourism receipts in Aklan in 2014 as erroneously reported by the Provincial Tourism Office of Aklan which saw print in several regional newspapers last week.

DOT Region VI accurately clarified that the 2014 total tourism receipts in the province of Aklan hit the P40.705 billion mark out of the total tourist arrivals which reached 1.472 million.

The Provincial Tourism Office earlier reported that out of the total 1.47 million arrivals, total tourism receipts was only P27.066 billion. The tourism office in Aklan erred in computing the total tourism receipts. It did not follow the formula prescribed by the DOT.

In computing the total tourism receipts for foreign and overseas Filipino tourists, the DOT uses the formula: average length of stay (days) in the island of Boracay) times average expenditure per tourist per day times the total number of foreign and overseas Filipino visitors equals the total tourism receipts. For foreign and overseas tourists, the average number of days expected to stay in Boracay is 9.6 days with an average daily expenditure of P3,926. Local tourists are expected to stay an average of 6.3 days in the island times an average daily expenditure of P2,833 times total number of domestic tourist equals tourism receipts.

In this case, as computed by the DOT, the total 2014 tourism receipts from foreign and overseas Filipino tourists was P27.403 billion and the tourism receipts for domestic visitor was P13.301 billion, or a total of P40.705 billion tourism receipts in 2014.

A total 2014 tourist arrivals increased by 8 percent from the 2013 figure of 1,363,601 swelling to 1,472,352 persons.

Foreign tourists in 2014 numbered 682,832, domestic visitors totaled 745,266 while overseas Filipinos numbered 44,254.

The Korean nationals outnumbered all other nationalities visiting Boracay Island with 263,377 arrivals in 2014.

Despite the travel ban by their government, Chinese nationals ranked as the next highest foreign visitors in Boracay with 165,243 arrivals in 2014.

The great bulk of arrivals in Boracay, aside from the Koreans and the Chinese, came from Taiwan-48,354, USA-22,203, Malaysia-19,542, Singapore-18, 175, Russia-17, 945, Australia-17,649, Saudi Arabia-11,136 and United Kingdom-10,549.  /MP