Philippines emerges as top market for global travelers

CEBU, Philippines — The Philippines emerged as the leading travel market for Trevolution Group with total sales reaching nearly US$183 million in gross bookings, or over 20 percent of the group's total gross profit during the first nine months nine months of 2023.

Trevolution Group, the global travel industry leader operating Asaptickets, Skyluxtravel, and operating other major travel brands, sold over 117,000 airline tickets to and from the Philippines in the same period this year.

According to the company, this indicates a stable 16 percent growth across the market compared to the same period in 2022.

The report further revealed that since commencing its direct ticketing operations in the region in early 2023, the Philippines has become the top-performing market globally for Trevolution Group in both traditional leisure tourism and the emerging visiting-friends-and-relatives (VFR) segment.

Historically, it has ranked among the favored tourism spots for international leisure travelers, and presently, the surging demand for transpacific flights significantly surpasses pre-pandemic levels.

In the first nine months of 2023, Trevolution Group reported a significant 60 percent increase in outbound tourism from the Philippines, which indicates the markets rapid recovery and growth.

There has also been a 12 percent increase in inbound tourism compared to the same period last year.

According to the Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT), a total of over 4 million foreign nationals and overseas Filipinos have arrived in the Philippines in the three quarters of 2023, which is close to the country's target of welcoming 4.8 million visitors from abroad this year.

Cebu as a tourism hub

Trevolution Group s latest business results further showed that Cebu contributed to 10.5 percent of the total flight tickets sold to and from the Philippine airports showing a 12.5 percent gross booking revenue increase compared to the performance logged during the three quarters of 2022.

The DOT sees Cebu as one of the strongest driving forces for the economic development of the region in the upcoming years. The emerging VFR segment is predicted to constitute a significant part of the travel business, especially across inbound tourism.

Following the last year's pattern, the vast majority of visitors coming to the Philippines in the three quarters of 2023 originated from the United States, Canada, and Japan, also adding Australia to this list and choosing Manila (76 percent) and Cebu (10 percent) as the main arrival airports.

Similarly, the top five departure cities to the Philippines remained Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Toronto, followed by Chicago, and most inbound passengers flew with Philippine Airlines, EVA Air, and China Airlines following the global pattern where the most popular airlines listed are also the top carriers to the Philippines.

Meanwhile, majority of air travelers starting their journey from the Philippines chose such popular global destinations as the United States, Canada, Japan, and Singapore, as well as flew domestically within the country.

Los Angeles, Toronto, San Francisco, New York, and Vancouver remained the top destination cities, similarly to the corresponding period of 2022, with an average of 50 percent more tickets booked from January to September in 2023 and Philippine Airlines, EVA Air and United Airlines as the top three air carriers of choice.

As the proportion of the America-based Filipino community is continuously growing, this pattern is heavily influenced by VFR tourism being one of the main reasons for these passengers frequently flying to the Philippines and back to North American cities, as well as vice versa instead of other global destinations.

For many years, tourism has been an important sector of the Philippines economy, and we are proud to have Trevolution Group among the top global businesses contributing to the regional growth and supplying the demand for international travel. During the first three quarters of the year since launching direct ticketing operations in the Philippines, we have established a strong presence across the region highlighting the Philippines as our largest travel market across Asia and globally, Alex Weinstein, the Founder of Dyninno Group explained.

Trevolution Group, which also maintains an office in Cebu, incorporates the travel businesses of the Dyninno Group of companies, which provides products and services in the finance, travel, and entertainment sectors. Over 730,000 airline tickets and vacation packages were sold by Trevolution Group in 2022, which makes it the fifth-largest travel consolidator in the US.