ABSTRACT
Tourism is now widely recognized as a major vehicle to generate employment and reduce poverty in the Philippines, an archipelagic country of more than 7000 islands and inhabited by about 88.6 million people (National Statistics Office, 2007). The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimated that travel and tourism contributed US$13 billion (597.9 billion Philippine pesos), or 9.1 per cent to the total Philippine gross domestic product (GDP), and employed 3.5 million, or 10.6 per cent of total employment (directly and indirectly) in 2007. The WTTC projected that the industry would generate US$25.7 billion (1522.1 billion Philippine pesos), or 8.7 per cent of GDP, and employ 4.1 million workers (9.7 per cent of national employment) by 2018 (WTTC, 2008).
