Travel plans are falling in the Philippines, with 22 percent of adults planning to travel over the next three months, down from 35 percent a month ago, according to Finder.com’s Travel Index, a press release said.
This is the lowest percentage of Filipinos making short term travel plans since Finder.com’s Index began in February this year.
For the previous seven months, the percentage of Filipino adults making short term travel plans has hovered between 35-43 percent. That means September marks the first month less than a third of the population has made travel plans.
The press release said 15 percent of FIlipinos plan to travel domestically over the next three months, down from 25 percent last month. Over the same period 9 percent plan to travel internationally, down from 14 percent last month.
Finder.com’s editor-at-large, Angus Kidman, says the Philippines has seen the steepest decline in the number of people planning travel of all 12 countries surveyed.
“Since we began this survey, travel plans in the Philippines have consistently been higher than almost all other countries included in the research.
“In fact in August, the Philippines had the highest percentage of people planning travel of all 12 countries, despite experiencing an 8 percentage point drop in travel interest from July,” he said in the press release.
“However, that all changed in September, with the Philippines experiencing a massive 13-point drop – the steepest fall in the number of people planning to travel of all other countries surveyed.
“Meanwhile, countries such as the US, Australia and Hong Kong all experienced drops of just 1-5 percentage points. Other countries, including South Africa, Singapore and India, saw slight increases in the percentage of people making plans.
Kidman says the decline in travel interest coincides with the tightened quarantine restrictions announced earlier in the month.
“Our September survey coincided with the extension of enhanced quarantine guidelines earlier this month, so it’s not at all surprising that fewer Filipinos are making travel plans.”
“But with the easing of lockdown restrictions in some areas, it will be interesting to see if this leads to an uptick in travel interest next month, or if we’ll see another decline as Filipinos decide to put travel plans on hold until the COVID situation improves.”*PR
