More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
Tourism is rebounding in the post-pandemic region of the ASEAN but the Philippines is lagging behind.
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| https://globalnation.inquirer.net/309555/ph-lags-asean-in-tourism-rebound |
The Philippines is among the slowest to recover in intra-Asean tourism, lagging behind most Southeast Asian neighbors despite a regionwide rebound, according to Asean tourism statistics from 2019 to 2024 by the Asean Statistics Division (ASEANstats).
An analysis by University of the Philippines associate professor and Inquirer data scientist Dr. Rogelio Alicor Panao showed that even before the pandemic, the Philippines trailed far behind regional tourism leaders. In 2019, it logged 526,832 intra-Asean visitors, a modest figure compared with Malaysia’s 17.9 million and Thailand’s 10.8 million.
The pandemic then dealt a deeper blow. Visitor numbers plunged to 7,773 in 2021, one of the steepest contractions in the region.
While Asean travel began recovering in 2022, the Philippines’ rebound remained subdued. Arrivals climbed to 188,205 in 2022 and 484,465 in 2024, still below pre-pandemic levels.
Meanwhile, Malaysia and Thailand had largely regained their 2019 volumes by 2024, while Cambodia and Vietnam doubled their 2022 figures within two years.
“In a region where intra-Asean travel has nearly returned to its pre-pandemic scale—reaching 48.5 million in 2024—the Philippines remains a relative laggard,” Panao said in his analysis.
He said the country’s slower recovery suggests structural constraints, including higher travel costs, weaker regional connectivity and delayed reopening compared with Asean peers.
A wider tourism gap
The pattern mirrors the country’s broader tourism performance
International arrivals to the Philippines remain below pre-pandemic levels even as neighboring destinations surge ahead. Data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) showed the country recorded 5.24 million visitors in the first 11 months of 2025, about 37% below 2019 levels, while Vietnam reached 22 million arrivals, surpassing its pre-COVID performance.Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco earlier pointed to a “big disparity” between the Philippines and Asean neighbors, noting the country operates with a much smaller tourism promotion budget than competing destinations.
“While we are operating at only over P3 billion, we are competing with countries that have devoted far more, especially in terms of marketing and promotions,” she said last year.
In a press briefing earlier this month, Frasco said a 93% cut in the DOT’s budget left the department “with only 100 million in branding and marketing in 2025.”
When asked about the cuts, she said, “From 2023, it was 1.3 billion, and that became only 200 million in 2024, and 100 million in 2025. Our competitors outspent us anywhere from three to 10 times more.”
Despite those figures, she said, “Philippine tourism still managed to deliver” through several campaigns.
Infrastructure, costs, connectivity
Longstanding structural issues continue to shape the country’s competitiveness.
Curtis Chin, a senior adviser at the Milken Institute and former US ambassador to the Manila-based Asian Development Bank, said travel in the Philippines often feels “more hassle than fun,” citing congested airports, fragile interisland connectivity and uneven transport infrastructure.
Ease of movement remains a decisive factor in Southeast Asia’s tourism race. Travelers comparing destinations often find Vietnam and Thailand offer “a combination of affordability, convenience and well-established tourism infrastructure,” according to tourism attache Erwin Balane.
The two countries, Balane said, have “highly developed tourism industries with efficient transportation systems, a wide range of accommodations, and clearly organized tour services, making travel easy even for first-time visitors.”
Higher travel costs also weigh on demand. Balane said tour prices in the Philippines have risen since the pandemic due to operating expenses and higher service fees, while infrastructure development has not kept pace.
Recent policy moves also reflect growing attention to travel costs. Lawmakers are pushing to abolish the mandatory travel tax, currently P1,620 for economy passengers and P2,700 for first class, to reduce expenses and stimulate travel activity.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said lowering the cost of international travel could “stimulate passenger volume, increase spending on transport, accommodation, food and services, and generate positive spillovers across the economy,” while helping position the Philippines as a more accessible and competitive destination.
A separate House measure estimates that removing the tax could lower ticket prices and expand travel demand, with projections showing potential economic gains from increased tourism-related spending.
The proposal—now among the administration’s priority legislative measures—underscores how cost competitiveness remains central to strengthening the country’s tourism recovery and regional positioning.
Domestic tourism carrying the load
Despite weaker international arrivals, domestic tourism has helped sustain the industry.
Citing the World Travel and Tourism Council’s impact report, Frasco said last year that the Philippines leads Southeast Asia in domestic tourism spending, reaching $63.4 billion in 2024 from more than 134 million trips and accounting for 35.8% of Asean’s total domestic tourism expenditure.
“These figures underscore the love of Filipinos for their own country and their vital role in sustaining local destinations,” she said.
Tourism earnings also remained strong. In 2024, the sector generated more than P760 billion in revenue, even as arrival targets were missed.
Still, analysts say domestic travel alone cannot fully offset the economic impact of slower international arrivals.
External pressures
Beyond structural constraints, external forces—from geopolitics to safety perceptions—have also slowed the Philippines’ tourism recovery.
China, whose tourists once made up the country’s second-largest source of visitors, has sharply declined amid geopolitical tensions and reduced connectivity. Tourism officials said China-Philippines routes are operating at only about 45% of pre-pandemic levels, limiting arrivals from what used to be one of the country’s biggest markets.
Frasco earlier acknowledged the impact of geopolitics on visitor numbers, saying: “Nobody could have anticipated that geopolitics would ultimately affect the arrival of tourists from China, especially since electronic visas for the Chinese market were suspended. This is in stark contrast to the policies of our Asean neighbors, where Chinese visitors either don’t need a visa or can obtain one upon arrival.”
She added: “Originally, we projected that up to 2 million Chinese tourists would arrive, but by the end of 2024, only a little over 300,000 actually came.”
South Korea—the Philippines’ largest tourism market for more than a decade—has also shown signs of weakness. Visitor arrivals dropped due to safety concerns, disasters and changing travel preferences.
Balane, Manila’s tourism attache for South Korea, said natural disruptions played a role, explaining that “successive typhoons as well as earthquakes in Cebu and parts of Mindanao disrupted flights, damaged tourism facilities and altered travel itineraries.”
He said media coverage in South Korea reinforced those concerns, adding it “significantly heightened perceptions of risk.”
Security concerns have further influenced travel decisions. Balane told the Inquirer: “Such incidents have eroded traveler confidence and reinforced the belief that the Philippines is less safe than competing destinations in the region.”
Strong economic role, uneven recovery
Despite lagging international arrivals, tourism remains a major pillar of the Philippine economy.
According to the latest World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Economic Impact Report presented during the Asean Tourism Ministers’ Meeting in Cebu, tourism contributed $91.8 billion to the Philippine economy, the highest in Southeast Asia.
The sector accounted for 19.9% of the country’s GDP and supported about 11.22 million jobs, or roughly 23% of national employment.
“These figures clearly show that the Philippines ranks among Asean’s leading tourism economies,” Frasco said, noting that tourism remains “a powerful driver of inclusive growth, job creation, and economic resilience.”
Recent data also show continued strength in tourism revenues, even as the recovery in visitor arrivals remains uneven. The DOT reported that tourism earnings reached P65.3 billion in January 2025 alone, surpassing pre-pandemic levels for the same period in 2019 and marking a 151.46% increase from January 2019.
Still, tourism officials reported 1,167,908 foreign arrivals in the first two months of 2025, indicating steady improvement but also highlighting the slower pace of international visitor recovery compared with regional peers—particularly in intra-Asean travel, where the Philippines continues to trail much of Southeast Asia.
The regional challenge
For Panao, the numbers point to a broader regional challenge rather than a short-term fluctuation.
“The Philippine tourism trajectory suggests that recovery has been slower and structurally constrained, possibly reflecting higher travel costs, weaker regional connectivity, or delayed tourism reopening compared with its Asean peers,” he said.
As intra-Asean travel continues to rebound and regional mobility expands, how the Philippines addresses these structural gaps may determine whether it can narrow the distance with its neighbors in the years ahead.
Even before the pandemic the Philippines was lagging behind in intra-ASEAN tourism. So it's not about the pandemic or about people recovering from the financial trouble. It seems the problem is the Philippines itself.
Around the world the cinema has struggled to crawl back to the large pre-pandemic profits. Why go out when every movie comes out on steaming a month or two later? In the Philippines one movie became a hit after theaters experimented with ticket prices.
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| https://deadline.com/2026/02/anne-curtis-viva-films-the-loved-one-discounted-tickets-1236730457/ |
Irene Emma Villamor’s The Loved One, starring Anne Curtis and Jericho Rosales, has crossed the symbolic PHP100M benchmark at the Philippines box office, making it the first locally produced hit of 2026 and encouraging the Philippine film industry to experiment further with discounted ticket sales.
The romantic drama, produced by Viva Films and Cornerstone Studios, was released nationwide on February 11 and grossed $1.9M (PHP110M) in just nine days. This figure was achieved even though tickets were being sold at discounted rates in the SM Cinemas and Robinsons Movieworld circuits.
In SM Cinemas, tickets were being sold at $4.70 (PHP275) in Metro Manila and $4 (PHP230) in provincial branches. Robinsons has been offering 45% discounts in select theatres, with some ticket prices as low as $1.70 (PHP99).
High ticket prices have been cited as a major factor holding back box office recovery in the Philippines, where annual box office is still only around half of pre-pandemic levels. Ticket prices rose substantially after the pandemic, sometimes to around $9 (PHP550) for premium releases, in a territory where the minimum wage in the country is around $12 (PHP700 pesos) per day.
Viva Films’ content aggregation chief Ronald Arguelles described the film’s success as a “triumph of combined marketing elements”. In addition to the lower ticket pricing, the film’s star power, the subject matter and the theme song Multo by Cup Of Joe, currently one of the Philippines’ hottest bands, are all contributing to the film’s success.
“Multo is currently the most streamed song in the Philippines on Spotify; Filipinos love to see a bittersweet romantic drama on Valentines weekend; and the Gen Z audience identified this as a film for their generation,” Arguelles explained.
Viva Films CEO Vincent del Rosario further elaborated: “The narrative is tailored to resonate with a Filipino audience, capturing the essence of a generation seeking a poignant romantic drama with characters that reflect their own experiences. Viva’s significant contribution has been instrumental in shaping the film’s potential for success, and Jericho Rosales and Anne Curtis’ involvement is a considerable factor in its anticipated box office performance.”
“The reduced cinema ticket prices also helped make the film more accessible to a wider audience,” del Rosario added.
Commenting on the film’s subject matter, director Villamor, said: “The audience perceives the narrative and events depicted in the film as remarkably specific and personal, thereby rendering them relatable.”
The story follows a couple’s relationship from the romance of first encounters through to moving in together, then through the impact of real-life problems – jealousy, death of a parent, work-related issues, money, pregnancy and miscarriage – providing a more realistic portrayal of a relationship than the average romantic drama usually delivers.
The film has also been released internationally in North America, United Arab Emirates and Australia.
Viva Films is one of the Philippines’ most prolific production outfits, making films for both threatrical and streaming. Last year’s theatrical releases included Mikhail Red’s supernatural horror film Lilim, starring Heaven Paralejo, and Lino Cayetano’s crime drama Salvageland, co-produced with Rein Entertainment, and starring Elijah Canlas and Richard Gomez, which Netflix recently acquired for Southeast Asia.
Of course with the minimum wage being a measly P700 per day poor people have no time to go to the movies even if the price is brought down to P199.
The Lubao International Balloon and Music Festival is returning in 2026. It first returned last year after a five year hiatus due to the pandemic.
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| https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/on-the-radar/2026/02/23/2508858/lubao-international-balloon-and-music-festival-2026-painting-sky-alive-summer/amp/ |
The Lubao International Balloon and Music Festival makes its highly anticipated return this summer, reaffirming its stance as one of the biggest and most iconic hot air balloon festivals in the Philippines!
Since its debut in 2014, the festival has captivated its thousands of audiences with its unique blend of aviation spectacle, live music and immersive on-ground experience.
After a five-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the festival made its successful return in the skies of Lubao last April 2025.
More than 70,000 people flocked to Pampanga to celebrate its much-awaited comeback. From hot air balloon flights to electrifying performances from your favorite local artists, the festival served it all.
This 2026, it’s keeping the streak and bringing you two days of breathtaking hot air balloon flights, thrilling attractions and an exciting lineup of artist performances you can’t resist.
Happening on March 7-8 at Pradera Verde in Lubao, Pampanga, the Lubao International Balloon and Music Festival is set to be a landmark celebration and a must-attend destination event.
Kicking off the festivities at sunrise, festival-goers can expect a mass ascension of over 25 colorful hot air balloons flown by both local and international pilots. Experience the skies of Lubao with spectacular balloon flights you can hop on right there and then.
Throughout the day, attendees can also enjoy a wide range of activities. Take in the magnificence of Pampanga’s landscape with helicopter and ultralight rides, bask in gastronomic food bazaars and immerse in nature with the crowd favorite outdoor zoo attraction.
Pradera Islands, the newest theme park destination in Pampanga, located within the sparkling grounds of Pradera Verde also welcomes thrill-seekers and families alike for adrenaline-pumping rides, immersive attractions and island-inspired adventures.
At sunset, the festival transforms into a dynamic concert experience, featuring acts from the biggest names in the Philippine music scene, delivering high-energy performances to cap off each day in unforgettable fashion.
This year’s lineup fulfills every OPM fan’s fantasy with musical acts from jikamarie, Illest Morena, Hev Abi, Flow G, Arthur Nery, December Avenue, Dionela, Maki, IV of Spades, Kamikazee and Parokya ni Edgar.
And for the first time ever, former Rivermaya bandmates Rico Blanco and Bamboo will share the same stage. Bamboo is set to perform on the first day (March 7) while Rico’s set takes place on the second day (March 8).
Festival tickets are priced at P500 for General Admission and P1,500 for VIP. To get the most out of Lubao, you can purchase two day passes for P800 for General Admission and P2,500 for VIP.
Get your tickets at all SM Ticket outlets nationwide and/or via online at
The Lubao International Balloon and Music Festival 2026 is organized by BLUE SKIES Hot Air Balloon AdVentures Association Inc. and Forthinker Inc., in partnership with Pradera Verde and Pradera Islands Theme Park, with the support of the Provincial Government of Pampanga.
I searched this blog's archives and found nothing about it returning last year so it must have been overlooked.
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