Beyond highlighting six key insights from the results of the Philippine Travel Survey 2020, four implications have also been cited to guide tourism related enterprises amidst and after the COVID-19 crisis.
Read: Domestic Leisure Travel Will Lead PH Tourism Recovery & Other Insights
The Philippine Travel Survey was launched on May 15 to 24, 2020 over various online platforms and garnered a total of 12,732 respondents composed of Filipino travelers and foreign residents, all over 81 provinces of the Philippines.
“Traveling in the new normal is hinged on an integrated system of stakeholders which suggests an ‘us vs me’ mindset.”
Department of Tourism, Dr. Andrew L. Tan Center for Tourism, & Guide to the Philippines (DOT, ALTCFT, GTTP). (2020, June). The Philippine Travel Survey Report: Insights on Filipino Travelers’ Sentiments on the New Normal. Department of Tourism, Asian Institute of Management, Guide to the Philippines
Rebuilding trust and confidence in travel
Health and safety has come out as one of the major concerns of travelers. It is imperative that tourism enterprises work to meet the minimum health and safety requirements to ensure their customers feel safe and are confident to avail of the tourism services.
The Report recommends that tourism enterprises design their customer experience around safety and ensure an assessment is done on customer touchpoints beyond their own services. This can help ensure convenience and confidence in the safety of the total service-process are met.
Adapt products and services
Tourism enterprises will need to continuously adapt to the changing environments, adjust value propositions in their products and services to meet the shifting needs of their markets.
The agility or swift adaptability of the enterprise, paired with innovation are key to ensuring continued survivability.
Recommendations include looking at opportunities in ancillary products or services, and tweaking of products/services to the changing traveler preferences particularly in light of COVID-19.
Shift to digital
COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of digitization of operations for many business organizations. In the Tourism sector, enterprises are not excluded from this and creative use of technology is necessary to survive in the new normal.
Tourism enterprises are encouraged to maximize technology to not only handle operations that help facilitate safety and convenience in travel, but also grow the enterprise’s marketing and communications efforts to expand market reach.
Collaborate with stakeholders
The Survey Report reminds us that the task of rebuilding trust and confidence in travel is a shared responsibility, and thus the need for collaboration among tourism stakeholders.
Local Government Units will need to be more proactive and work with the tourism enterprise associations even more closely so that win-win solutions can be met. Tourism enterprises will also need to find convergence points among other players through discussions that will focus especially on health, safety, and sustainability and ensure local community involvement.
Survey Respondents
60% of the respondents fall within the ages of 22-40 years old. 98% have at least an undergraduate degree and 30% have postgraduate degrees. 47% are private employees followed by 19% working in government. 27% of the travelers earn Php 20,000 – 40,000 per month.
For more information on this, please refer to:
Department of Tourism, Dr. Andrew L. Tan Center for Tourism, & Guide to the Philippines (DOT, ALTCFT, GTTP). (2020, June). The Philippine Travel Survey Report: Insights on Filipino Travelers’ Sentiments on the New Normal. Department of Tourism, Asian Institute of Management, Guide to the Philippines
Read the full Philippine Travel Survey Report here: