The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) conducted the validation of the 2018 benchmark estimates and consultative forum with stakeholders in Iloilo City on 03 March 2023. The activity was participated in by representatives from Department of Tourism (DOT) Region VI, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Region VI, Department of the Interior and Local Government Region VI, local tourism offices, and PSA personnel from the regional and provincial offices in Region VI. Ms. Phoebe Zelie C. Areño, Supervising Tourism Operations Officer of DOT VI, recognized the efforts of PSA to capture the Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) in the region and expressed DOT’s full support in the endeavor. She also said that the estimates will be helpful in the policy-formulation and decision-making for the tourism industry in the region. Engr. Arecio A. Casing, Jr., OIC-Regional Director of NEDA VI, also acknowledged the use of these statistics in monitoring the Regional Development Plan, promoting investments, boosting employment, among others, for the tourism industry. At present, the PSA compiles the TSA at the national level on an annual basis which follows internationally agreed guidelines and recommendations. The TSA is a tool to measure the impact of travel and tourism to an economy in the context of the System of National Accounts. It provides macroeconomic aggregates that describe the size and the economic contribution of tourism, detailed data on tourism consumption, detailed production accounts of the tourism industries, and the link between economic data and non-monetary information on tourism. Recognizing the demand and relevance of a more granular data on tourism statistics, the Satellite Accounts Division under the Macroeconomic Accounts Service of PSA conducted a series of workshops in the regional and provincial offices in the past years. The PSA’s regional office in the Cordillera Administrative Region had piloted the compilation of subnational TSA in 2019. In 2022, a Roadmap was crafted to facilitate the compilation of subnational TSA for the other regions in the country. As a start, a training workshop on the compilation of subnational TSA and related indicators was initiated with participants from Western Visayas, Central Visayas, and Eastern Visayas. Following the Roadmap, the same training workshop on TSA was also undertaken for the National Capital Region, MIMAROPA, and Bicol Region this year. Activities for the other Luzon regions are scheduled in 2024, while for the regions in Mindanao it will be in 2025. The validation and consultative fora for Central Visayas and Eastern Visayas are set in March 2023.  

- Macroeconomic Accounts Service, Sectoral Statistics Office