DOT laments poor reporting of tourist arrivals
LINGAYEN— The number of tourist arrivals in Region 1, have been continuously growing but still a bigger portion of which is not being reported by accommodation establishments, said a tourism executive.
“We have achieved the million visitor mark, Pangasinan is the highest (in the Region) but this is based on 30% reporting. There is severe underreporting and we would like to improve that record this 2015,” said Department of Tourism (DOT) Region 1 Director Manuel Valera.
Valera, one of the speakers during the opening program of the 2nd Pangasinan Skills Competition held at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center (NRSCC), Lingayen on Tuesday (September 22), said many companies are not fully disclosing their data on guest arrivals likely because this would incur additional taxes on them.
In Pangasinan alone, only the Western portion is submitting their reports, he noted.
Maria Luisa Elduayan, head of the Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office (PTCAO), earlier reported a 37% annual average growth rate of tourist arrivals in Pangasinan for the past five years.
She added that there was a total of P362-million tourism receipts collected in the year 2014, as provided by a departure point survey.
The amount indicates the average expenditure of tourists who visited Pangasinan last year, which has boosted the local economy.
Valera commended the skills competition citing it as “a right step in molding the necessary experience to meet the challenges of the industry. Expectations are high that good and quality service should be extended to customers, either foreign tourists or domestic travelers.”
Meanwhile, he also cited the need for more tourism graduates that are adept both in office operations and craft skills and for more application developers since the mobile phone “will be the new platform to disseminate information, to search information, and later to the be the point of sales” particularly with the beginning of the ASEAN integration. (Johanne Macob)
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