Filipinos cooped up at home for months now are dreaming of going to Boracay, a booking platform reveals.
Good news for them because starting this October, the world-class island in Aklan is now open to tourists from areas under general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
Kids and the elderly are also allowed to enter Boracay. Tourists, however, have to get a negative result from an RT-PCR (swab) test 48 hours prior to their date of travel.
Based on Agoda.com’s top searched data for travel till year end, local destinations take the biggest slice of the pie when it comes to Pinoys’ travel wishlist. Family and group travelers are looking to go to Boracay, while couples and solo tourists want to explore Manila.
Batangas, Cebu, Bohol, and Palawan likewise figure prominently across different demographics.
Among the four demographics, travelers planning to go as a group are most keen to travel domestically with all their top 10 most searched destinations within the country (Boracay, Batangas, Manila, Davao City, Tagaytay, Siargao, Palawan, Cebu, Angeles/Clark, and Cavite).
While majority of Filipinos are keeping it local, some groups are also looking forward to overseas adventures—which are mostly in Asia—in Bangkok, Singapore, Seoul, Osaka, and Tokyo.
“While Agoda’s search data have seen a shift toward domestic destinations as regulations are being eased for domestic travel, people are still dreaming about international adventures,” said Tim Hughes, vice president of corporate development at Agoda.
He continued, “What Agoda’s data show us is there is still a hunger to travel. People are keen on exploring their own countries whether alone, with family, or with friends. They are also looking forward to visiting their dream international destinations too once it’s safe to do so, and are looking for the best deals for when that time comes.
Globally, most searched destinations on the platform for overseas adventures are Taiwan, Thailand, and Japan.
According to Agoda, Taiwan tops the travel escape search list among all different traveler groups—from couples to solo travelers, and families or groups, beating last year’s champ—Thailand, which came in as the second most searched destination.
Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea round out the top five, while the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Indonesia complete the top 10.