Tourist arrivals will have reached 3.1 million by the end of the year, and that is a conservative estimate.

According to the Department of Tourism, close to 8.5 million Filipinos will visit beaches, mountain resorts, shrines, and other points of interests in their own country this year, a press release from the Office of the Press Secretary said.

The industry has President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to thank for her holiday economics policy.

Based on the holiday economics policy, government adjusts holidays to give Filipinos longer weekends to travel and see the country. For example, the country recently had another three-day weekend when Eid'L Fitr, a holiday at the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan that is celebrated worldwide this year on Sept. 23, a Wednesday, was moved to a Monday.

As a result of holiday economics, domestic tourism has been growing at a yearly rate of 18 percent since 2005, when it contributed P800 million to the total tourism traffic. In the first half of 2009 alone, domestic tourism increased by 20 percent in part because of the annual summer break, budget air fares, and the opening of more roll-on roll-off routes under government's nautical highway program.

Domestic tourism is expected to be bolstered in the second half of 2009 and next year by the country's inclusion among National Geographic magazine's 25 new travel destinations in the world in 2010.

Tourism as a driver of economic growth has been a government priority which the President has enunciated since her first State of the Nation Address in 2001. As a follow through of her SONA, she has ordered the revision of the country's 2004-2010 Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan to include tourism as one of its areas of focus.

The National Economic and Development Authority estimates domestic tourism, excluding the businesses that indirectly earn from tourism such as souvenir shops, restaurants, and hotels, currently contribute between five percent and six percent to the country's gross domestic product, where consumption, investments, and government infrastructure spending are major factors. With the trend among affluent Filipinos to travel to and spend more in local instead of foreign tourist destinations, the industry and related businesses have been investing in new or expansion projects and have created more local jobs despite the global economic crisis.*OPS

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