The Philippines emerges as the leading travel market for Trevolution Group

Trevolution Group, the global travel industry leader operating Asaptickets, Skyluxtravel, and other major travel brands, reports selling over 117,000 airline tickets to and from the Philippines in the first three quarters of 2023. This report indicates a stable 16% growth across the market compared to last year's period, amounting to nearly 183 million USD in gross bookings, or over 20% of the Group's total gross profit during the nine months.


Since commencing direct ticketing operations in the region in early 2023, the Philippines has become the top-performing global market for Trevolution Group in both traditional leisure tourism and the emerging visiting-friends-and-relatives (VFR) segment.

It has historically ranked among the favored tourist spots for international leisure travelers, and presently, the surging demand for transpacific flights significantly surpasses pre-pandemic levels.
Thus, in the first nine months of 2023, Trevolution Group reported a significant 60% increase in outbound tourism from the Philippines, which indicates this market's rapid recovery and growth.

There has also been a 12% increase in inbound tourism compared to last year. According to the PhilippineDepartment 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, and Trevolution Group's businesses are a constant contributor to reaching this goal.

Cebu as a tourism hub
The Philippines is now in the state of full post-pandemic tourism recovery, with Cebu playing a crucial role in regional development. Over the past years, Cebu has evolved into a thriving economic center and tourism hub and is one of the fastest developing cities in the Philippines.

That is also reflected in Trevolution Group's latest business results, where Cebu contributed 10.5% of the total flight tickets sold to and from the Philippine airports, showing a 12.5% gross booking revenue increase compared to the three quarters of 2022.

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

Class of travel
The growing demand for international travel to and from the Philippines is also reflected in the substantial increase in sales across all cabin classes during the three quarters of this year. That resulted in a 59% growth in Economy flights booked from the major airports across the Philippines and a high 79% growth in Business class compared to last year's data for the same travel period.

Meanwhile, the demand for inbound Economy tickets has increased by 11% and 29% in Business class, again indicating the notable return of business travel. International businesses are growing, and the Philippines is becoming a major player in today's global economy.

Based on Trevolution Group's sales results, another cabin class that keeps showing a positive tendency among Filipino travelers is Premium Economy, thus indicating a growing demand for more affordable yet upgraded comfort.

Additionally, the majority, or 90.5%, of all tickets purchased to the Philippines were round-trip tickets compared to almost the same proportion, or 91%, in 2022. That is another indicator of the emerging VFR travel segment that is especially popular among 4.4 million Filipino Americans with strong ties to the homeland and booking most round-trip tickets from the US to the Philippines.

Likewise, the share of one-way tickets has also stayed at nearly the same level, amounting to 9.5%, compared to 9% during the nine months last year. However, the proportion of outbound return tickets is only 42.5% in 2023 vs. 38.8% in 2022, indicating a minor growth, which clearly highlights the ongoing return of global leisure travel with different destination airports.

Booking window and terms
Almost half, or 48% of all global travelers flying to the Philippines in the first three quarters of 2023, purchased their tickets over three months before the departure date. This number has increased slightly since the last year when 43% of Trevolution Group's passengers would book their flights over 90 days ahead.

Such a pattern indicates that the travel industry has finally recovered to a pre-pandemic state, and people feel more confident again in making their travel plans further in advance, especially regarding VFR travel. Thus, only 10% of all inbound flight tickets are purchased up to 10 days before the trip in 2023, compared to 9.5% in 2022.

Meanwhile, according to the Group's ticket sales from the Philippines, air passengers tend to make more last-minute decisions and, therefore, only less than one quarter, or 23.5% of all travelers secure their tickets over 90 days in advance, while 14.5% choose to do it up to 10 days in advance. Last year, however, the sales data showed a slightly different pattern, with more passengers (17.5%) making last-minute bookings and only 20% purchasing tickets over three months in advance.

In addition, the number of short-term bookings for up to 10 days from the Philippines has decreased in both 2023 and 2022, and the average length of stay abroad is now 61.9 days vs. 62.3 days in the same period last year.

This indicates that travelers still tend to make up for the two pandemic years and thus feel more confident about spending more time abroad now that the industry has recovered, especially when visiting their friends and family or working remotely.

Meanwhile, for travelers coming to the Philippines, this period is twice as low, with 33.6 days or an average of one calendar month in the first nine months period of 2023 compared to 37.7 days within the same 9-month timeframe last year, which is an average length of stay abroad for leisure travel.

Destinations
Following 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%) and Cebu (10%) 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, the 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.

Thus, 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% 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 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, commented.