President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. highlighted the Philippines as a Service Export Powerhouse, specifically the Tourism and Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) Sectors’ vital roles in boosting the country’s economic growth during his speech in the second State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the Congress last Monday, 24 July 2023.

Part of the administration’s work is to push the Philippines by making it a “Tourism Powerhouse and an Agile Export Powerhouse” in Southeast Asia, aligning with the two plans, the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) 2023-2028 and the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2023-2028.

Under the PEDP 2023-2028, Services exports significantly contributes to and increase the domestic content of total exports. Among the major exporters in Asia, only India, Singapore, and the Philippines generate a third or more of their exports from services. From 2005 to 2020, the Philippines expanded its services exports by nearly 10% per year, enabling its services share to rise from 17% to 33%.

Recently, the Department of Tourism (DOT) launched its newly enhanced branding campaign of ‘Love the Philippines’ to promote the country’s tourism and its offerings beyond the word fun. It visualizes that this branding enhancement will bring a shift in tourism recovery. Though tourism was the hardest hit sector during the pandemic, the world is now onto the New Normal and “revenge travel”. The DOT figures showed that the country is already at 62% of its 4.8 million target for 2023.

DOT is one of the government agencies mandated to implement its relevant Programs, Activities and Projects (PAPs) aligned with the PEDP and the PDP to boost export growth cited under Memorandum Circular No. 27 and 23, respectively. AOB