MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos are closing the 12 months with one more trip alternative — a protracted weekend from Saturday, December 28, up till New Yr’s Day on Wednesday, January 1, 2025. Are you going wherever?
Journey expertise app Klook’s 2024 Journey Pulse examine confirmed that Filipinos spend extra on journey now — budgeting P15,000 to P50,000 for worldwide travels, whereas spending about P15,000 to P30,000 for 4 to six-day home journeys. In the meantime, Journey.com has famous that the final quarter of the 12 months — October, November, December — is the “peak season” for Filipinos, due to the vacation breaks.
So, the place do Filipinos go? And the way do they plan their holidays?
Filipinos get pleasure from home journey
Filipinos are additionally vacationers in their very own nation. With over 7,000 islands, there are numerous seashores to go to, mountains for mountaineering, and journeys to historic cities. (READ: Exploring the Philippines in 2024? Right here’s your Filipino journey bucket checklist)
“In accordance with the World Journey and Tourism Council, the Philippines stands as having the biggest home tourism market in Southeast Asia, with a valuation of over $52.1 billion as of 2023 and it’s projected to succeed in as a lot as $66.2 billion by the tip of this 12 months,” Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco mentioned in a yearend briefing.
Klook additionally famous that native journey locations stay a success amongst Filipino customers of their app. A earlier report confirmed that Boracay, Baguio, Palawan, Siargao, and Cebu are among the many high most popular home journey locations of Filipinos.
Japan amongst high locations regardless of visa requirement
If you happen to’ve checked your on-line social feeds these days, it could appear that almost all Filipinos — your mates, celebrities, and native personalities alike — are all in Japan. The Land of the Rising Solar has remained a well-liked vacationer vacation spot, regardless of the visa requirement for Filipino passport holders.
“Many Filipinos get pleasure from travelling domestically, however for outbound locations, 4 of the highest 5 supply visa-free journey — Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, and Singapore,” Edmund Ong, senior regional director for Southeast Asia at Journey.com advised Rappler.
“Japan is the one vacation spot within the high 5 that doesn’t supply visa-free journey to Filipinos.”
In 2023, over 620,000 Filipino vacationers went to Japan for trip, in accordance with knowledge from the Japan Nationwide Tourism Group. Simply earlier than the pandemic hit, Japan relaxed its visa guidelines in 2018 for Filipino enterprise vacationers and cultural and mental figures, which embody medical docs, legal professionals, and licensed public accountants.
The demand has additionally prompted new flight choices — as an example, low-cost service Cebu Pacific has elevated flights to Japan. In October, the airline launched direct flights from Cebu to Osaka, working 4 instances per week. The airline additionally introduced direct flights to the nation’s winter wonderland, Sapporo, starting January 16.
Journey.com mentioned intra-Asia journey bookings — which jumped 229% in 2024 in contrast with final 12 months — accounted for many of the transactions made by Filipinos on their platform. Apart from Japan, South Korea is the subsequent high vacation spot for Filipino vacationers that require a visa earlier than entry. (READ: Daebak! What you have to know to your final Seoul trip)
“Journeys to Europe are rising in recognition as properly, with European journey bookings rising by 229% year-on-year,” Ong mentioned.
Points of interest, theme parks are go-tos
Points of interest and theme parks are additionally among the many the explanation why some locations, notably Hong Kong, are engaging to Filipino vacationers.
“The preferred sights and excursions are dominated by these in Hong Kong. These embody Hong Kong Disneyland, Ngong Ping 360, Ocean Park, and The Peak Tram,” Ong mentioned.
“Different sights standard with our Filipino customers are Common Studios Singapore, Common Studios Japan, and Tokyo DisneySea,” he added. Most Filipinos e-book tickets for these sights, in addition to different native excursions, a minimum of per week earlier than they intend to go.
That is virtually the identical findings Klook president and co-founder Eric Gnock Fah famous of their app — vacationer sights, corresponding to Common Studios and teamLab exhibitions, are standard amongst Filipinos.
There’s demand for premium journey
Emirates, one of many airways with flights from Manila to different components of Asia, North America, Europe, has additionally famous a rise in demand for premium journey — notably, first-class suites on airways.
“We seen, particularly after the pandemic, premium journey demand is excessive out of the Philippines so we noticed that the product that’s lacking is the first-class product,” Emirates Philippines nation supervisor Saeed Abdulla Miran mentioned.
“At the moment, we provide our passengers a seamless connectivity by [a] first-class suite out of Manila to the world.”
In accordance with Miran, Filipinos or these travelling from Manila would often e-book a enterprise class seat going to Dubai. And from then on, their connecting flights can be on a first-class seat.
“As soon as we launched it, [it] has been doing nice and we see numbers are rising and the demand is rising,” Saeed mentioned.
Earlier this 12 months, a luxurious journey company — CITTI Elite, a sister firm of Company Worldwide Journey and Excursions — additionally began operations. In accordance with a TTG Asia report, CITTI Elite goals to serve “excessive net-worth people from the Philippines who know that there’s extra to discover and to expertise [at] a rare vacation spot.”
Live performance tourism is on the rise
Taylor Swift skipping the Philippines on her billion-dollar Eras Tour didn’t cease Filipino Swifties from experiencing the three-hour-long live performance. Filipino followers traveled to her Asia-Pacific stops — Singapore, Japan, and Australia — to see their favourite blondie sing her high hits by the years.
Filipinos have been the high patrons of Klook’s ticket bundles for Swift’s “The Eras Tour” in Singapore, accounting for 10% to fifteen% of the tickets bought. The platform famous that gross sales for different ASEAN nations’ stood solely within the single digits. (READ: It’s been a very long time coming: PH celebs attend Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ live performance)
Journey.com additionally seen the same pattern in South Korea’s IU live performance in Hong Kong. Journey.com vp of worldwide markets Boon Sian Chai mentioned tickets for her live performance bought “like hotcakes.”
“Music festivals and live shows goes to be one thing that’s going to be up and coming, and it’s very engaging for kids,” Chai mentioned. – Rappler.com
