THE Philippine tourism industry was among the economic sectors Covid-19 hit the hardest. The pandemic halted its 11 years of continued growth and affected the livelihood of millions of Filipinos. As the government immediately instituted long and massive lockdowns and border controls, a total of P6.1 trillion in tourism revenues were lost in 2020 and 2021.

In 2019, the tourism industry contributed 12.7 percent of the Philippines' gross domestic product (GDP) and provided 5.71 million jobs, mostly to young and women Filipino workers. At that time, there were 8.3 million tourist arrivals and P550.2 billion in international tourism receipts. These went down to 3.9 million and P279.5 billion, respectively, in 2020.

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