October 3, 2021 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos have become less and less inclined to resume travelling, both domestic and international, according to a survey conducted by Finder’s Travel Index.
According to the survey, travel plans in the Philippines in September plummeted, with only 22 percent of Filipino adults wanting to travel in the next three months.
This is a significant drop from the 35 percent in August. This is also the lowest level of Filipinos making short term travel plans since the index began in February this year.
This, after quarantine restrictions were reimposed and the government has yet to fully reopen the economy.
Over the past months, travel plans hovered around 35 percent to 43 percent.
The tourism industry was among the hardest hit sectors globally as the pandemic curtailed travels and leisure trips to contain the spread of the virus and prevent the emergence of new variants.
Tourism in the country remains heavily dependent on the domestic market. In terms of expenditures, domestic tourism accounted for 84 percent of the total P3.74 trillion receipts in 2019.
Based on the index, plans for both domestic and international travel are slipping.
For domestic, travel plans dropped to 15 percent of Filipinos from 25 percent the previous month. International travel also slid to nine percent from 14 percent.
More men at 27 percent than women at 19 percent also plan to travel, but this already went down from 41 percent and 29 percent, respectively.
Finder’s editor-at-large Angus Kidman said the Philippines saw the steepest decline in the number of people planning to travel among the 12 countries surveyed. The average is at 24 percent.
“Since we began this survey, travel plans in the Philippines have consistently been higher than almost all other countries included in the research,” Kidman said.
The US, Australia and Hong Kong all saw a minimal one to five-percentage- point drop while South Africa, Singapore and India, saw slight increases in travel plans among their population.
Kidman said the easing of lockdown restrictions in some areas may lead to an uptick in travel interest this month. “Or we can see another decline as Filipinos decide to put travel plans on hold until the COVID situation improves,” Kidman said.
