The Philippine Travel Agencies Association or PTAA is supporting the earlier pronouncement of Tourism Secretary Maria Christina Frasco to have more infrastructure that would improve the inter-island connectivity to improve domestic tourism, making foreign and local tourists have an easy island-to-island travel.

“We are reaching out to our government to produce more infrastructure for our tourism to grow, especially in the inter-island,” said Evelyn Bondagiy, the outbound vice president of PTAA during the kick-off of the upcoming 13th Travel Tour Expo and the 9th International Trade Expo 2024, set from 2 to 4 February.

After revealing that the DoT is eyeing to have 7.7 million foreign tourist arrivals for the year 2024, Frasco in December 2023 acknowledged that there are still challenges to face next year in attaining those targets, particularly connectivity and infrastructure.

“The Philippines continues to face two major challenges, especially in comparison with its ASEAN neighbors. They are infrastructure and connectivity. That is why we are pushing, through our convergence with the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways), to continue to improve tourism infrastructure, as well as to push our convergence with the DoTr (Department of Transportation), as far as the direction of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to privatize our airports and to improve the quality of our airports all over the country, as well as extend the number of flights that are coming into the country,” she said.

Discounted fairs

For their part, airline representatives said they are making strides in making airline fares more economical to draw more airline passengers who will visit the country’s more than 7,000 islands and tourist attractions.

“Of course, we have scheduled promos for PAL but that will be announced later on. But we want to concentrate on the upcoming expo so you can expect exciting deals from PAL. Through the expo, we can offer packages, together with our travel agency partners,” said Marissa Dimaano, the Assistant Vice President for Passenger Sales of Philippine Airlines.

Aside from promoting domestic tourism to foreign visitors, the PTAA will also hold the same expo its 9th International Trade Expo 2024 to offer a variety of international tour packages.

According to PTAA president Evangeline Tankiang-Manotok “the signs are clear that 2024 is the year of travel for Filipinos” after observing a surge in purchases of goods and services related to travel in the past six months, cutting across all age and income consumer groups.

Manotok maintained that the trend is most welcome as Filipinos look forward to exploring the globe once again after being restricted for about three years due to COVID-19.

“The enthusiasm for travel and to see different places once again is making for a buoyant travel industry, and we at the PTAA are very much ready to cater to the demand,” Manotok stressed.

Manotok said that the most-visited tourist attractions, based on the records of their member travel agencies are Boracay, Bohol, Palawan, and Siargao, while Batanes is slowly becoming a favorite as well.

For first-time international travel, among the favorite-listed destinations are Hong Kong, Thailand, and Singapore.