In pursuance of Republic Act 9593 or the National Tourism Act 2009, the Department of Tourism in cooperation with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is set to enhance the ability of local planning and tourism officers of local government units throughout the country in formulating their own local tourism development plans using basic and advanced statistical data on tourism.

This was the announcement made by Undersecretary for Planning Daniel G. Corpuz during the two-day workshop on the National Tourism Statistics Conference held on February 16-17, 2012 at the Diamond Hotel, Manila.

The conference was attended by some 500 planning and tourism officers in selected areas throughout the country.

Corpuz said that the need for a capacity-building program is a result of a widespread observation that most provincial, city and municipal comprehensive land use plans (CLUP) and other development plans contain no, or very limited, tourism statistics relating to, for example, volume and profile of tourists and supply of rooms for accommodation establishments and other tourist facilities in the locality.

The absence of standard statistical data generally results in difficulty in setting targets and proxy indicators. This does not provide a good scenario for decision makers and project implementers.

Henceforth, the tourism department will now embark on improving the tourism planning process of LGUs by building their capacity to collect, compile and process demand and supply tourism data.

The use of standard statistics modules will enable LGUs to understand the tourism situation and match this with a comprehensive overview of their performance in terms of tourism and travel in their area of jurisdiction, while at the same time providing the means to forecast and project their tourism growth – using simple analytical processes and tools.

In addition, basic concepts on tourism clustering, as well as evaluation criteria and processes for designating tourism development areas, sites and attractions will be used to guide LGUs in prioritizing local tourism development given the limited timeframe and available resources.

Simple mapping exercise is also necessary to have a visual representation of the proposed development.

As a form of support to the LGUs, a guidebook on tourism development and tourism statistics has been published to enhance the ability of local planning and tourism officers in local tourism planning and development in conformity with the National Tourism Development as required by the national tourism act.