The Philippine Hotel Owners Association (PHOA) has partnered with the Department of Tourism (DoT) to create a significant roadmap aimed at guiding future developments and addressing long-standing challenges in the hotel industry over the next five years.
Dubbed the Philippine Hotel Industry Strategy Action Plan (PHISAP) 2023-2028, this document serves as a vital blueprint for infrastructure development, product diversification, marketing and promotions, digital transformation, and industry collaboration, all while emphasising sustainable practices to ensure the long-term viability of the sector.
PHOA executive director, Benito Bengzon Jr, said it also highlights the necessity of building more hotel rooms required by various Philippine destinations amid growing international and domestic demand.
Currently, there are 335,592 hotel keys across 18,818 accommodation establishments in the Philippines. By 2028, an additional 120,463 keys will need to be added to meet the projected 11.5 million foreign tourist arrivals, as outlined in the DoT’s National Tourism Development Plan (NTD), not including the anticipated 100 million domestic trips each year.
Other proposed programmes under PHISAP include enhancing the industry’s global competitiveness, institutionalising data collection on key hotel and accommodation strategies together with the private sector for effective planning and monitoring, and developing a highly competitive workforce.
It also recommends increasing investments in marketing and promotions within the hotel sector to align with the NTDP projections, promoting public-private partnerships and facilitating investments by enhancing the investment climate through optimised tools for tourism planning, partnerships, and incentives.
Tourism secretary Christina Frasco remarked: “The challenges that we face are too vast and too complex to be solved by any single sector or by government alone. Together, we must build a resilient, adaptable, and forward-thinking tourism ecosystem to meet the demands of today’s travellers while anticipating the needs of the future.”
Recognising that hotel owners are key investors in tourism, Frasco expressed hope that PHISAP will enable investors to “continue to have a deep understanding of the landscape that the Philippine tourism is in and work with us in (the) government to ensure that the landscape improves”.
