THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), along with the Department of Tourism (DOT), is pushing for a statistical framework intended to measure sustainable tourism in the country, including Negros Occidental.
Undersecretary Lisa Grace Bersales, national statistician and civil registrar general of PSA, said the initiative aims to develop a standard framework so that all measurements of sustainable tourism will be the same.
Bersales, who spoke during the Sustainable Tourism Forum at the Capitol Social Hall in Bacolod City Wednesday, September 27, said the framework is different from existing statistics as it will incorporate the effects of environmental degradation of any tourism activity in the measurement.
“This involves not just one or more indicators, it is a framework. For instance, the 6.5 percent economic growth if incorporated with environmental impact, it would have been six percent only,” she said.
Thus, it is more complete because we are looking not just the economic part of it but also the effect to the environment and social aspects as well, Bersales added.
The push to develop the measurement framework is an initiative of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), covering initial batch of member-countries including Philippines.
In 2019, the framework will be presented to UN Statistical Commission then will be subjected to approval of all member-countries.
Once adapted by the commission, all statistics offices will be following the same methodology like in the estimation of gross domestic product (GDP), and economic performance, among others.
In the Philippines, the "pilot study" is already being conducted by the PSA and DOT. It includes collection, compilation, and estimation of data.
Bersales said they target to start the implementation of the framework in the country in the next two years.
“This measurement framework, especially for sustainable tourism, is vital for our policy makers and program planners to do the right thing especially in making the right policies and doing the appropriate programs,” Bersales said.
For Negros Occidental, provincial supervising tourism operations officer Cristine Mansinares said the framework is seen to impact positively the local industry.
"Because apart from its economic benefits, it will allow us to measure the social and environmental impacts of the industry for us to better manage them," she added.
The Sustainable Tourism Forum marked the celebration of World Tourism Day in the province.
It forms part of the activities for the ongoing eight-day 17th Provincial Tourism Week themed "Tourism for Sustainable Development" running until September 29.