Tourism is an important sector of the Philippine economy.

 

Pre pandemic back in 2019, the travel and tourism industry contributed 12.7% to the country's GDP.

 

The Philippines is an archipelagic country composed of 7,641 islands with eighty-one provinces divided in seventeen regions. The country is known for having its rich biodiversity as its main tourist attraction.

 

Its beaches, heritage towns and monuments, mountains, rainforests, islands, and diving spots are among the country's most popular tourist destinations.

 

The country's rich historical and cultural heritage, including its festivals and Indigenous traditions, are also one of the attractions of Philippines.

 

Popular destinations among tourists are Cebu, Boracay, Palawan, Siargao, and many more.

 

However, despite this large potential, the tourist industry of the Philippines has lagged behind its Southeast Asian fellows like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, due to political and social problems.

 

Pre-Pandemic figures

 

South Korean’s topped the 2019 visitor list with 1,989,322 visitors to the Philippines, followed by the USA and China.

 

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Some 36,111 Russians also visited the Philippines in 2019, which was up by 20.50 percent from 29,967 Russians in 2018.

 

Now with the effect of the pandemic, these figures have dropped and the total number of visitor arrivals from CIS and Russia in 2020 was down to 17,287.

 

Philippine’s trading partner

 

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Russia does a lot of business with the Philippines including defense cooperation between the Department of National Defense and Russia's Ministry of Defense.

 

This amounted to over eight million in 2020, making Russia the Philippines' 19th trading partner out of 224 countries.

 

The Philippines government is also close to the US administration who are going to call for countries to start sanctions against Putin and Russia.

 

It will provide for some tough decisions over the next few months.

 

Tourism????

 

2022 had looked promising for many in the tourism industry with the pandemic seemingly to be under control.

 

However, that may be a force of hope as many countries are likely to restrict travel until the Ukraine situation is resolved.

 

Meanwhile with the financial squeeze globally, will people actually feel like taking expensive vacations?

 

Watch this space!

 

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