The Philippines dropped its ranking in the latest release of WEF Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report. From No. 74 in 2015, the country slips five notches to No. 79 out of 136 countries in the said report. The report measures the set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the travel and tourism sector, which contributes to the development and competitiveness of a country. The 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report measured each economy’s attractiveness through 14 pillars, with each having its own sub-pillars.

The country’s commendable rankings are on ‘Price Competitiveness’ and ‘Natural Resources’, ranking No. 22 and No. 37, respectively. ‘Price Competitiveness’ Includes Ticket Taxes, Airport Charges, Hotel Price Index, Purchasing Power Parity And Fuel Price Levels, while the ‘Natural Resources’ pillar is measures the number of World Heritage Natural Sites, Number of Species, Total Protected Areas, Natural Tourism Digital Demand, and Attractiveness of Natural Assets. Other pillars the Philippines performed well are on ‘Human Resources and Labor Market’ (No. 50), Prioritization of Travel and Tourism (No. 53), and Business Cultural Resources and Business Travel (60th).

The report also outlined the pillars where we lag behind such as: Safety and Security (No. 126), Environmental Sustainability (No. 118), and Ground and Port Infrastructure (No. 107)

Under a competitive neighbourhood, the Philippines ranks No. 6 out of nine in the ASEAN trailing behind Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam, and ahead of Lao PDR (No. 94) and Cambodia (No. 101).  Indonesia and Vietnam are the biggest gainers in ASEAN both improving by 8 notches.

Despite these drawbacks, the outlook for the Philippine travel and tourism industry remains positive. With the continued support and collaboration of the public and private sector, the country can achieve its goal of entering the top-third of global rankings to improve the industry’s competitiveness.