Staying home

Bad news for the travel and tourism sector: Filipinos are staying home.

This was quite clear just this past weekend — one of the traditional long Undas holidays that Filipinos choose to spend traveling to local resorts, visiting relatives in the province or going on a quick pre-Christmas shopping trip to Hong Kong, Taiwan or Japan.

This year, it was quite clear that most Filipinos stayed in Mega Manila, with the biggest news over the weekend being the massive traffic that caught motorists traversing from south to north via C-5, due to the poorly disseminated news advisory about the repair of the Taguig U-turn overpass from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.

In my column just this Monday which I had written in advance last Friday, I had already observed that unlike the past — and this goes back a long time for me since I normally stay home for Undas and prefer to travel during the Christmas and New Year holiday or after – I had noticed that traffic in Mega Manila did not seem to have thinned out and the volume of vehicles seemed to  be like normal as usual.

In the past, there was almost a palpable sense of urgency in leaving the mega city, with bus passengers leaving days ahead. The same was also noticeable at the airport.

To be honest, since the fuel price hikes that started in February this year, weekend traffic out of the city no longer seemed as troublesome because the high cost of gas and diesel made out-of-town trips no longer a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Perhaps, I should clarify that my husband and I are among those who used to like driving out of town for a long lunch, and even up to dinner, to Tagaytay, Pampanga or Subic.

These out-of-town day trips, of course, were made possible by the extension of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) and the Cavite- Laguna Expressway (CALAX) going to points south of Manila, and going north through the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX).

We also enjoyed, before the Middle East war, going on spontaneous roundtrip long-drives to Villasis, Pangasinan just to buy bagoong, fruits or whatever, and believe it or not, for a day-trip to the edge of the province – near the border of Ilocos — just to eat at a local Ilocano restaurant and get our fix of dinengdeng, bagnet with KBL or kamatis, bagoong and luya (ginger). I kid you not!

I buy my shrimp paste bagoong by the gallon and store it in my refrigerator for up to three years, giving it time to ferment, creating a truly more delicious alamang bagoong.

However, those trips were already quite expensive, considering the toll and gasoline or diesel cost. Back then, the peso was relatively stable.

But the cost of travel has gone through the roof with the Middle East war started by US President Donald Trump.

Perhaps, not since the pandemic has the travel and tourism sector seen another devastating increase in oil prices, creating a ripple effect that has reverberated globally. International arrival figures had dropped, but local tourism was still able to rely on local tourists.

But not this past Undas. The malls were packed. Parking was full and the restaurants, I’m sure, were thankful for the brisk business since normally there are very few customers in the city during the Nov. 1 and 2 cemetery visitation.

Even in Ayala Malls Makati, I was surprised to see plenty of clearly well-to-do families filling the cafes and restaurants with bored teenagers in tow who were  clearly pissed that they were either not in the beaches and resorts, or out shopping in Hong Kong, Singapore or Tokyo.

It’s understandable that even for a small family of four, an out-of-the-country trip would likely cost the main breadwinner a month’s salary, what with the peso-dollar rate hitting P65 to $1 in anticipation of expected demand for travel money for the Undas holiday.

Local air carriers are appealing to newly returned Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon to perhaps use his persuasive power on NAIA operator New NAIA Infrastructure Corp. to take the blow on the chin in absorbing the cost of terminal fees, which are adding to the increasingly prohibitive cost of air travel – as if taipan Ramon Ang is a money-making machine that can afford to forego some income on the refurbished airport facility he has already invested more than P70 billion in.

Gokongwei-owned Cebu Pacific, which has allowed every Juan to fly, has been bleeding to the tune of P5.91 billion for its operations this year, while the Lucio Tan-owned flag carrier, Philippine Airlines, has posted losses so far of P1.84 billion – much lower than its rival.

The threat to Cebu Pacific will be particularly critical as it has – no question – allowed more Filipinos to fly domestically and abroad. A loss of a critical low-cost carrier will surely harm our country even more.

But the future, unfortunately, remains uncertain, with the fragmentation of the world order once led by the US, upon which the global economy once enjoyed a rules-based trading system.

Instead, what we face is shifting geopolitical influence that may lean toward countries we are not entirely comfortable with and have actually come into territorial conflict with.

This is further compounded by our own political turmoil between the current Marcos regime, the still popular Duterte political faction and unwilling political candidates who do not really see a voting population that will choose good governance and still strongly adhere to a feudalistic political overlord.

Time to say our Hail Mary.