President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos, Jr., (PBBM) in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2022 urged to boost the Tourism Industry as a driver to economic recovery through basic developments in the existing infrastructure in coordination with the Department of Tourism and Department of Public Works and Highways.
He stressed on improving the roads and tourism spots, continuous upgrade on airports and seaports and the creation of more international airports. Following programs aimed to open and give more opportunities to the Tourism industry and by some means, give solution to current issues and bottlenecks of the Philippines. PBBM emphasized the strong economic growth with Tourism as one of the industries scaling up having an upward trend in the GDP during the first quarter of the year is projected to be sustained and expanded further to 6.5 to 8 percent from 2023 until 2028.
Tourism is one of the four Key Export Sectors in the existing Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2018-2022. And with the marching order from PBBM to boost Tourism for greater opportunities towards economic recovery , it is certainly to be included in the PEDP 2022-2027.
The PEDP is subsumed in the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028 crafted by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA). The PDP shall provide a roadmap towards unlocking sustained and inclusive growth for the Philippine economy despite the challenges brought by health, geopolitical, and other economic shocks. Consistent with the 6-year timeline of the PDP, the plan shall define the country’s medium-term export thrusts, strategies, programs and projects and shall be jointly implemented by the government, exporters and other concerned sectors.PKC