Commentary: Goodbye Boracay, hello Tagaytay – less well-known places could be the future for domestic travel

SINGAPORE: The tourism trends during the COVID-19 pandemic are shifting. Take Baguio and Tagaytay as examples.

A recent Airbnb survey found that a majority of Filipino travellers wanted to visit these less known getaways than usual tourism hotspots such as Boracay. This finding aligns with changing tourism preferences happening elsewhere.

Popular Hawaiian getaways and California’s Napa County witnessed a 75 per cent and 50 per cent drop in their bookings respectively.

Another survey of more than 2,000 Americans by a financial firm revealed that the two-thirds of these travellers avoided large cities due to COVID-19 concerns.

READ: Commentary: Why Singapore’s travel restrictions will keep changing for a while more

What explains these trends? Obviously, the pandemic has altered tourists’ behaviour and produced new consumption…