BRITISH citizens are making up for lost time due to the worldwide pandemic travel restrictions, and will be gallivanting farther than usual during their summer season.
In its latest news release, leading travel search engine Kayak said, “Searches for summer travel have surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 30 percent, and with demand rising, flight prices are likely to rise.”
It added, “Seven of the Brits’ top 10 most searched summer 2022 destinations are long-haul holidays—a stark difference from 2019—with Asia the most popular. Manila, Philippines is the most searched for holiday destinations, followed by Bangkok, Thailand.” The rest of the searches included Istanbul, New York, Alicante in Spain, with “additional newcomers” like…Dubai, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Denpasar in Bali, and Faro in Portugal.
In comparison, pre-pandemic top destination searches in 2019 were New York, Alicante, Faro, Malaga in Spain, Orlando in Florida, Bangkok, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Palma de Mallorca, and Lisbon.
Kayak also noted that British travelers were planning “extended holidays” showing their average trip length increasing to 17 days from 14 days for pre-Covid summer holidays.
Traveling by coach
Tourism attaché to the UK Gerardo Panga credited the Philippines’ “successful hosting” of the recent World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit “which helped elevated the profile of Manila.” The headquarters of WTTC is in London. (See, “WTTC sees PHL tourism raising $155B by 2032,” in the BusinessMirror, April 20, 2022.)
But he added that Kayak’s results are also “consistent with the Expedia UK where its point-of-sale report showed the Philippines as the most searched destination for the Brits as of December 2021. Also, the Association of British Travel Agents conducted a survey in 2021, which revealed Manila as one of the top city destinations to be visited by the Brits, post-pandemic.”
To be able to get to their faraway travel destinations, Kayak said, British travelers are sacrificing their comfort. “Despite the cost of living rising, a summer break is not in question as people appear willing to compromise on luxury to fund the budget to get away. Economy class flights make up the vast majority of summer searches, while three-star hotels have surpassed four-star hotels since 2019 as the most popular star rating selection,” it said.
5th top tourism market
Data shared by Kayak was based on flight searches on their site and associated site from April 16 to May 4, 2022 for travel dates from June 1 to September 15, 2022, compared to the same search and travel dates in 2019.
The Philippines reopened to inbound leisure tourists on February 10, and as of May 17, British travelers were the fifth largest market at 19,064. They accounted for 4 percent of total international arrivals for the period of 279,444, according to data shared by the Department of Tourism. Travel from Heathrow airport to Manila is about 17 hours via Middle Eastern carriers, with brief layovers in the latter’s home ports.
Foreign tourists outpaced balikbayan (homecoming Filipinos) visitors, who reached 184,503 for the period, resulting in total inbound arrivals of 463,947.
Americans topped the list of foreign tourists at 93,593; followed by South Koreans at 24,723; Canadians at 22,189; Australians at 20,841; the British; Japanese at 12,038; Vietnamese at 9,216; Germans at 7,938; and Singaporeans at 6,233. Arrivals from Malaysia, at 5,295, round up the top 10 foreign tourists market of the Philippines.