BAGUIO CITY – The City Tourism Office recorded 1.31 million tourist arrivals in 2023, which proves that the so-called Summer Capital remains a hit with vacationers and continues to be in the Top 5 tourist destinations since the pandemic.

According to City Tourism Operations Officer Aloysius Mapalo, the highest tourist arrival in the city was in 2018 with a total of 1,760,729.

In 2022, 1,042,309 tourist arrivals were recorded; 247,480 in 2021; 1,536,458 in 2019; 1,521,748 in 2017; and 1,294,906 in 2016.

Mapalo clarified that these numbers only cover the data of overnight tourists reported to the city government by accredited accommodation establishments (AEs) in compliance with Ordinance No. 120-2017 or the Tourism Statistics Standards of Baguio City and excludes tourists not reported by AEs and day tourists who did not stay overnight.

He said the average annual arrival number could have tripled or to 3-4 million extrapolated estimates of annual total arrivals over the past five years if the numbers of overnight stays and those not recorded because they are not officially recorded” to consider.

“This means we have 20,000 to 30,000 average weekly arrivals, more than 70 percent of which occur on weekends. It can double up to 60,000 during peak season weekends usually during the summer and Christmas seasons or on long weekends,” Mapalo said.

He said, in the total of 2023, less than 1 percent or 0.64 percent are foreigners and 99.36 percent are domestic tourists.

“We are not really able to attract many foreign tourists. Mostly they are targeting other Cordilleran destinations and they just pass by our city,” he said.

Regarding its economic impact, Mapalo said that tourism has a 20 percent average contribution to the city’s gross domestic product (GDP).

He said based on the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report, a tourist spends an average of P2,000-P4,000 per day while the average length of stay is 1.4 days.

This translates to an estimate of up to P15 billion in annual gross receipts.