TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)—Bohol tops the trending destination by Filipino domestic travelers, according to Agoda, an online travel agency catering to customers around the world, in their 2025 New Horizons ranking.
Every year, Agoda, which is an online travel platform, keeps taps of all bookings, reservations, accommodations and ground activities made by tourists seeking travels and compares them with the previous year’s trends, to come up with the fastest climbing destinations in the trending list, or those which consistently stayed as tourists favorite options.
This too, as the same online travel platform, lists Siquijor Island as the fastest-growing domestic destination attracting international travelers visiting the country.
On the other hand, for Filipino tourists who travel abroad, Hanoi in Vietnam is the top Filipino choice destination, the same Agoda’s New Horizons list show.
With this, the Provincial Tourism Council (PTC) during its Executive Committee Meeting at the Bohol Tourism Office Conference Hall expressed excitement, even as tourist arrivals in Bohol in 2024 have so far reached 951,383 as of January 6, 2025.
In fact, PTC vice chair Atty. Lucas Nunag said over Siquijor which is an emerging destination, Bohol has an international airport, something that could bolster more international arrivals.
Bohol Tourism Officer (BTO) Joanne Pinat bared that as of the moment, Bohol has 8 international flights, excluding international charters.
Of the international air lines serving Bohol Panglao International Airport (BPIA) are Incheon (Korea)-Panglao-Incheon thrice a day and Pusan (Korea) -Panglao-Pusan once a day by JejuAir, Incheon (Kor)-Panglao-Incheon, and back as well as Pusan (Korea) Panglao-Pusan, served by Air Busan, Incheon (Korea) Panglao-Incheon once a day served by Air Seoul and another Incheon (Korea) Panglao Incheon daily served by JinAir.
For the domestic routes, Bohol is served by the three flights of Philippine Airlines for Manila-Panglao route and vice versa, daily flight for Panglao-Davao-Panglao, 4 flights daily for Manila-Panglao-Manila and vice versa, 10 weekly flights for Davao-Panglao Davao and vice versa, 5 times flights for Panglao-Clark-Panglao and daily flights for Panglao-Ilo-ilo-Panglao served by Cebu Pacific Air.
Air Asia also serves 4 times daily for Panglao-Manila-Panglao and vice versa, while Air Swift serves the Panglao-El Nido (Palawan) Panglao route daily.
Here, she is hopeful that Bohol could beat the one million tourists mark, by January 31, 2025.
She also hinted that there are still some municipal tourism officers who have yet to submit their tourism reports, which could significantly alter the count.
Sharing the report which the Department of Tourism also gets, Pinat said of that number, 61 percent are domestic tourists awhile 39% are foreign tourists.
Sharing during the recent Executive Committee meeting of the Provincial Tourism Council presided by vice chair Atty Lucas Nunag, Pinat bared that the top ten foreign tourists in Bohol include Koreans at 48 percent, Chinese 10%, Taiwanese 7%, Americans 4%, Germans 3%, Japanese 2%, French 2%, British 2%, Canadians 2%, Chinese Hongkong 1% and other nationalities, 19%.
As this happened, tourism officials have seen the effect of a tourism mission sent by Gob Erico Aristotle Aumentado, in Taiwan last year.
The governor has been bullish about bringing local tourism to even loftier heights especially with the UNESCO Global Geoparks designation, as the revenues from tourism activities can help propel development here. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)
