The Department of Tourism is on the receiving end of bashing for releasing what netizens called as “misleading” graphs for its 2017 accomplishment report released on the same day as President Rodrigo Duterte’s second State of the Nation Address (SONA).
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The DOT used two graphs to show the “bright spots” in the Philippines’ economy, which are specifically about how that tourist arrivals increased by 72% and that tourism revenue grew by 109% during Duterte’s first 11 months compared to the Aquino administration.
However, some netizens pointed out something wrong with the graphs.
“Even a Grade 4 kid can spot what’s wrong with the conclusion from these poorly made graphs,” Twitter user @econcepcion said.
Even a Grade 4 kid can spot what’s wrong with the conclusion from these poorly made graphs. pic.twitter.com/uM66b0AcPp
— Ethel (@econcepcion) July 24, 2017
Facebook user Jayson Bernard Santos called the graphs “misleading” with “selective” data.
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“Department of Tourism – Philippines, why is your chart missing a few years? Isn’t this a misleading graph? Selective use of data?” Santos wrote.
“As a matter of fact, 2016 had 313.6 billion tourism revenue from 306 billion in 2015,” he added.
“Shookt. Sana data na lang from the time Magellan came to the islands ang ginamit para mas glaring ang itinaas ng graph.”
In the comments section, Santos wrote that he started receiving “harsh, mean messages” in his inbox, which he blocked.
Rappler’s Newsbreak pointed out that percentage change is computed using data from the immediately preceding period of time.
But what DOT did was ignore the process during former President Benigno Aquino III’s entire term since the graphs only took into account data from 2010-2011 and immediately jumped into the data from 2016-2017.
If the comparison was meant to look at the achievements of the DOT during the two administrations’ first year, they should have compared the changes in tourist arrivals during Duterte’s first 11 months in office with that of Aquino during the same period.
Rappler noted how there has been an increase from one year to the next starting in 2010, although the available data for this year only ended up to May 2017.
(Graphs rom Rappler)
In Rappler’s comparison, they looked at the data from July 2015 to May 2016, Aquino’s last 11 months in office and compared them to those from July 2016 to May 2017 under the Duterte administration. They also compared the data from July 2010 to May 2011, Aquino’s first 11 months in office, to that of July 2009 to May 2010, the last 11 months of Arroyo’s administration.
(Graphs rom Rappler)
Rappler took note of the available and lacking tourism-related data. For 2017, the DOT site’s Industry Performance report only has figures until May 2017, hence the use of figures only for Duterte’s first 11 months in office.
For tourist arrivals, there are available monthly and yearly figures from 2009 onwards on the DOT site. However, there are only yearly figures for tourism receipts, based on “arrival/departure (A/D) cards, shipping manifests, and results of DOT’s Visitor Sample Survey.” The available monthly figures are only available for 2011 and 2013 in DOT’s Travel and Tourism Statistics Booklet. Even when they checked DOT’s headquarters in Makati City, only the 2015 booklet was available.
They obtained yearly figures for tourism receipts from 2010 to 2015 from DOT’s March 2016 report, while the 2016 yearly figure was taken from an article published by the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Rappler also cited figures on inbound tourism expenditures obtained from the Philippine Tourism Satellite Accounts (PTSA) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). They also provided a graph.
(Graphs rom Rappler)
Former Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal tweeted about the issue, citing that tourism receipts actually dropped over P80 billion from May 2016 to July 2017 compared to 2015.
In 2015, the PH had 306B for Int’l Tourist Receipts. From May, 2016 – July, 2017, the amount DROPPED to 222.3B. The PH LOST 80+B in 1 year.
— Gregorio Larrazabal (@GoyYLarrazabal) July 26, 2017
Before that, he tweeted what appeared to be a “fixed” graph with data from the missing years filled in.
“Res Ipsa Loquitur”. Some things are supposed to be easily understood.@TourismPHL pic.twitter.com/f6eRv4pur5
— Gregorio Larrazabal (@GoyYLarrazabal) July 26, 2017
@clinton613 also hit Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo for possibly not reading the Transition Report with a higher target for 2017.
DOT Sec Teo announced the growth of int’l tourism receipts of her admin.
Bet she didn’t read the Transition Report after she took over. pic.twitter.com/cFw4t0jJ92
— Clint Balbontin (@clinton613) July 25, 2017
@DanSantos showed more figures in his tweet.
PH Tourism
•Tourist arrivals
’15-5.36M
’16-5.97M (up 11%)
•Int’l Receipts
’15-303.6B
’16-313.6B (target 455B, up 2.3% slowest in 6 yrs) pic.twitter.com/tqrfmgzLAd— Dan Santos (@DanSantos8) July 26, 2017
This is not the first time the DOT was criticized by netizens. The agency was recently accused by netizens of “copying” South Africa’s tourism ad, which led to the firing of their advertising agency. Some people with disabilities even hit the ad for promoting to PWDs when in reality, the Philippines is not yet PWD-friendly.
Teo was also hit for asking the Philippine media to tone down reports on extrajudicial killings and for the empty DOT website’s marketing campaign page.
The DOT was also asked once to stop using Teo’s photos in the cover photos of the agency’s official Facebook page.
Sources: ( rappler.com , philstar.com )
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