Holy Week, Labor Day are busiest travel seasons in PH

MANILA, Philippines – Holy Week is the busiest season for domestic travel among Filipinos. 

On Friday, May 10, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said long weekends and holidays are the periods when most Filipinos traveled in 2010, but one of the Catholic church’s most important seasons stand out.   

There were 1.31 million travellers during the Holy Week of 2010, according to NSCB Secretary General Jose Ramon Albert who cited the 2010 Household Survey on Domestic Visitors of the National Statistics Office (NSO) and the Department of Tourism (DOT).

More travelers also stay overnight at their travel destinations during Holy Week and Independence Day, than during Eil al-Fitr and National Heroes’ Day.
“If you are a local tourist, you are not just relaxing or enjoying the fun and adventures –  you are also contributing to the economy.  I am hoping that more of our tycoons, other than Gokongwei, can significantly invest in making this country more marketable not only to foreign tourists, but to local tourists as well,” Albert said. 

The Gokongweis operate Cebu Pacific, the local airline who traditionally flies the most domestic travelers in a year. 

“I also hope that our hotels can try to be more competitive with their accommodation costs as total revenues are a sum of unit prices multiplied by quantities. These hotels can certainly bring down their costs and get more volume, and still yield a nifty profit,” he added. 

Where Filipinos go

The NSCB said there were 21.03 million domestic travellers in 2011, a 21% increase from 16.94 million in 2010. 

The top 5 tourist destinations for Filipinos in 2011 were:

• Laguna – 2.65 M
• Camarines Sur – 1.98 M
• Cavite – 1.77 M
• Zambales – 1.13 M
• Cebu – 1.09 M

These provinces were able to contribute significantly to the number of domestic tourist arrivals in their respective regions. The top 5 regions are:

• Calabarzon – 5.05 M
• Bicol – 2.67 M
• Western Visayas – 1.89 M
• Northern Mindanao – 1.58 M
• Central Luzon – 1.56 M

“In the case of Caraga, there was a large increase of domestic travelers, from 8,822 in 2010 to 70,900 in 2011, specifically in Agusan del Sur where Lolong, the world’s largest crocodile in captivity, stayed after it was captured in September 2011,” Albert said. 

“Lolong has become a tourism draw, generating some revenues for the region, but unfortunately, the crocodile died in February this year.  Aside from Lolong, the other attraction in the region is Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte, where the number of tourists went up by 23.4%,” he added. 

Foreign tourists

More and more foreign tourists are coming to the Philippines to relax and unwind. The DOT said their numbers are increasing and have already breached the 4 million mark in 2012.

However, the pace of growth among foreign tourist arrivals have slowed down to 9.1% in 2012 from 11.3% in 2011. The fastest pace of growth in the number of tourist arrivals in the Philippines since 2000 was when tourist arrival growth hit 20.1% in 2004. 

This is probably why foreign tourists can only think of 9 things they like in travelling to the Philippines compared to 10 reasons why they dislike coming to the country. 

The 9 things tourists like about the Philippines (measured as of 2012):

• Warm hospitality and kindness of people – 52.6%
• Beautiful sceneries/nice beaches – 22.6%
• Able to see loved ones/relatives/friends – 8.7%
• Good food/liquor/fruits – 9.9%
• Good climate- 4.4%
• Shopping opportunities – 2.3%
• Good accommodation/restaurant facilities and services – 2%
• Inexpensive/reasonable prices of commodities – 1.1%
• Good place for relaxation – 4.5%

The 10 things tourists dislike about the Philippines:

• Heavy traffic – 24.6%
• Air/water pollution/dirty environment – 17.3%
• Poverty/beggars/unemployment – 7.8%
• Rainy/humid/bad weather – 4.7%
• Language barrier – 2%
• Crime incidents, poor peace and order situation – 3.2%
• People always asking for tip – 1.8%
• Delays in service/slow or lazy people – 2.3%
• Poor airport facilities- 3%
• Dishonest/reckless taxi drivers – 3.3%

– Rappler.com