Globe wishes to respond to the article Decline of tech-savvy Korean tourists may slowdown Globe’s network usage written by Tyrone Piad which was published in Inquirer.net on September 11, 2024.
We understand that Mr. Piad heavily referenced a report by FitchSolutions company BMI, titled “Quick View: Potential Tourism Dropoff A Risk To Globe’s Network Expansion,” linking Korean tourist arrivals to the utilization of Globe’s network infrastructure. The report posits that the potential decline in “tech-native South Korean travelers” to the Philippines, owing to a projected reduction in South Koreans’ spending on “non-essentials,” may pose a risk to Globe, just as the company continues to expand its network to support industries such as tourism and agriculture, among others.
Contrary to BMI’s outlook, Globe’s Mobile revenues and customer base have shown sustained growth over the years, logging record numbers that beat even pre-pandemic figures.
Globe’s current Mobile customer base has reached 59.5 million as of Q2 2024. This total, cleansed of inactive users following the industry-wide SIM registration process conducted last year, consists largely of Philippine residents who actively use our network.
Alongside this, Globe has registered strong growth in Mobile revenues, reaching an all-time high of Php 58.4 billion as of end June 2024, a 7% increase from Php 54.8 billion in the same period last year.
More specifically, mobile data revenues contributed an all-time high of Php48.0 billion, a significant 9% growth compared to the previous peak of ₱44.0 billion achieved a year ago.
This is on the back of mobile data traffic reaching 3,256 petabytes in the first half of the year, 16% higher compared to 2,814 petabytes reported in 2023. This represents a staggering leap of 92% in mobile data use from before the pandemic. In FY 2019, Globe reported mobile data traffic at 1,699 petabytes.
These figures show how Globe is able to consistently grow data utilization, largely driven by its active users based in the country.
As reportage, Mr. Piad is expected to come up with a balanced story with inputs coming from Globe. Had Mr. Piad contacted Globe before he released his story, we would have given him this important piece of information that, “This particular customer segment cited in the BMI report accounted for a tiny fraction of Globe’s total Mobile revenues in FY 2023. Their size is understandably small in comparison to our stable domestic base. Thus, a decline in South Korean tourists into the country will not have a significant impact on the Globe network.” It is very unfortunate that Mr. Piad along with the Philippine Daily Inquirer chose to publish a one-sided story.
Data from the Philippines’ Department of Tourism also showed a year-on-year increase in the arrival of South Korean tourists here, as they continue to account for the highest volume of visitors to the country. From January to August this year, the Philippines recorded 1.078 million visitors from South Korea, a 13.03% increase from 953,762 in the same period last year.
Arrivals peaked in January this year at 174,119, with a trough within April and June at 110,000 and 112,000 levels, but the volume of visitors has been picking up again with 140,150 arrivals in July and 145,431.
Even if the BMI outlook points to a decline in South Korean tourists, sustained arrivals from tourists hailing from other countries could cushion the Philippines’ tourism industry. For instance, Japanese tourist arrivals here reached 260,773 from January to August this year, an increase of 33.64% YoY. Chinese tourist arrivals also rose by 38.27%, reaching 241,041 in the first eight months of the year.
Globe values the tourism industry which is why we continue to innovate on our products and services, such as traveler SIMs and eSIMs to better serve our customers.
Globe also supports the tourism industry as a whole through consistently improving our connectivity services across the regions. This means serving tourists of all nationalities, tourism facilities, operators, workers and all other stakeholders big and small.
In all, we’d like to emphasize that our network expansion will continue as we endeavor to provide reliable and equitable services accessible for all. Our goal is to provide superior network experience to every customer, whether resident or visitor.
Sincerely,
Yoly Crisanto
Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer
Globe