Last week, I posted on X (formerly called Twitter), “How can you convince Filipinos to travel to other parts of the Philippines, when it’s cheaper to fly to Hong Kong, Singapore or other ASEAN destinations, than it is to fly to some tourist destinations In the Philippines? Make flights cheaper to destinations inside the Philippines.” This was due to my personal experience in travelling to some parts of the Philippines, which ended up costing more than flying to nearby ASEAN tourist destinations. A number of people commented on the tweet, lamenting that they too, felt the same.

Bianca Gonzales-Intal retweeted my tweet and shared her own experience, tweeting, “Totoo. Bakit ganun. We booked a trip to Siargao and it is more expensive than a trip to Hong Kong, Bangkok, or Vietnam. Mas mahirap suportahan ang local na turismo dahil ang mahal (Why is it like that? It's difficult to support local tourism because of that).” There was a deluge of comments on social media and traditional media, with countless of reposts and comments by fellow Filipinos. The common reaction was that they agreed with the sentiment, and shared their frustration that it’s expensive not only to fly to tourist destinations in the Philippines, but also food and accommodation in those tourist destinations are sometimes more expensive.

Sometime in 2002 when the Department of Tourism (DOT) was headed by Sec. Richard Gordon, the DOT launched a program, WOW Philippines. It was a multi-year tourism campaign that was designed to promote the country’s cultural diversity and many destinations. It emphasized a “Wealth of Wonders” approach that focused on tourist spots like Boracay, Intramuros, Palawan, and others. It was a really good campaign. Until now, some people still use that slogan, a testament to its effectiveness and recall. WOW Philippines shown the spotlight on our diverse world-class attractions, which I must add, few countries could match.

Before, it felt exciting to want to discover the Philippines, the ad campaign made not only foreigners want to fly to the Philippines and discover the wonders of the country, it made us Filipinos also excited to travel around the country.

I’ve been continually visiting places in the Philippines, either by taking a plane, riding a boat, or, more often than not, driving to the destination. I’ve always told anyone who’s willing to listen, on how beautiful the countryside is. How much better it is compared to other countries. How people you meet wherever in the country, whether it be in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, or Bangao, Benguet, will be happy to help you. Even if you do not speak the local language, chances are Filipinos will be able to find ways to communicate with you, something that you can’t say, about other countries you visit.

With the advancement of technology, the increase in the number of airlines both to and from the Philippines, and within the Philippines, it’s made it more accessible for tourists to visit our tourist destinations. Unfortunately, we were still lagging behind our ASEAN neighbors in terms of tourist arrivals. With the changing of habits of tourists through the years, many now put more weight on cost and convenience in choosing where they’ll travel for a vacation.

If we look at the tourist numbers of ASEAN, this is where we’ve continued to fall behind. Not just behind, but way behind our ASEAN neighbors. Other countries have now surpassed their pre-pandemic tourist arrival numbers, while we’re still playing catch up.

There are several reasons why we’re almost at the bottom, and we’ll discuss those in the coming weeks, but a big factor is our airfares to some of our tourist destinations. The same thing Bianca mentioned in her tweet. While many would like to consider some of our tourist destinations, flying to other countries sometimes comes out cheaper. Yes, airlines regularly come out with promos which many Filipinos avail of. But foreign airlines also have promos of their own. Other airlines slash their prices from the Philippines to other countries. If you plan early, you can get great deals. In fact, one novel idea I experienced was during the last time I flew to Japan, I only paid for my airfare to Japan. Flying to other domestic destinations of that airline were free.

The Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) came out with a statement after the tweet went viral, explaining why some destinations are expensive. That’s a good move on their part, because you see them trying to find ways to make things better, trying to make it more enticing for Filipinos to fly to a tourist destination inside the Philippines, instead of flying to another country. Hopefully it can help us, rediscover the WOW in the Philippines

Have some tourist stories, ideas or suggestions? Please email me at [email protected] and we’ll discuss it in next week’s column.

(The author is a former Comelec commissioner. He is a pioneer of automated elections being a member of the Commission that successfully modernized Philippine elections in 2010. He remains involved in public service as an election lawyer.)