Many might remember “Travel Time,” a Philippine documentary travel show in the late 1980s hosted by Susan Calo Medina, whose catchphrase became famous: “Huwag maging dayuhan sa sariling bayan” (Don’t be a stranger in your own country).
Expensive airfares and accommodation, however, have turned Filipinos into exactly this—preferring to travel to other countries within the region because it is more affordable.
Last year, viral social media posts lamented that flights to Siargao reached roughly P30,000, more than the cost of a trip to Tokyo. Surigao del Norte Rep. Francisco Matugas attested that a round-trip ticket from Manila to Siargao cost him P22,000, calling it “too much.”
Perhaps the most shocking was a one-way ticket from Tacloban to Manila costing nearly P39,000 through AirAsia Move, a travel booking platform owned by Malaysia-based AirAsia. The Civil Aeronautics Board subsequently fined the platform P6 million for overpricing fares.
More to love
This year, another post showing airfares to Batanes priced at P27,000 also made the rounds, reigniting discussions about domestic travel being more expensive than international trips.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) have taken steps to address these issues. In September last year, the DOTr reported that Philippine Airlines (PAL) has agreed to impose a cap on fares to Siargao at P11,000 for one-way and P22,000 for round-trip. These are still more expensive than the average, but a cursory check on PAL’s website showed that economy fares have gone down to at least P4,000 for one-way bookings for September—a promising development for travelers.
Last month, new DOT Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay, launched the “Discover More to Love” campaign, which offers more than 3,000 travel deals from July to November. This move is supposed to make domestic tourism more attractive, especially for locals.
World’s top islands
“The Philippines has never run out of reasons to explore. We just sometimes forget to look for them,” the DOT states on the campaign’s website.
There are, indeed, many reasons to explore the country, and more than 7,600 islands to choose from. Last year, Boracay, Palawan, and Siargao were voted the world’s top islands by readers of luxury travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler.
The question is, are they affordable? Prohibitive costs have limited travel to the country’s beautiful islands to a certain demographic: tourists from countries with strong currencies that make these destinations more affordable compared to Filipinos who find that exploring neighboring countries would yield a better return for their peso.
While these government regulations and campaigns are welcome, further actions are necessary if the aim is to make domestic tourism more attractive to locals, and even foreign travelers who might find it more convenient to go to Vietnam or Thailand, where inter-island trips are more accessible.
Investigations into the high cost of domestic flights have pointed to limited or poor infrastructure as one of the most crucial factors making travel within the country not only expensive but also inconvenient. Vietnam and Thailand, while not archipelagic like the Philippines, also boast of thousands of islands that attract many tourists. The difference is a seamless system in place, from travel agencies to transport services, and better infrastructure.
More steps to take
Sayak Airport, the main gateway to Siargao, for example, has a small runway of about 1,300 meters and is not instrument-rated. This means it can only serve small turboprop aircraft carrying around 80 passengers and has no capacity to operate at night or through bad weather, limiting passenger load to the island. With only two round-trip flights per day, the capacity does not meet the demand, pushing airfare prices up.
If the government can fund a P50-million cauldron (“kaldero”) in Tarlac, there is no reason why it cannot pour money into the improvement of airport infrastructure that will benefit more Filipinos. The government did allot P7.8 billion this year to upgrade facilities in 19 airports, including Sayak Airport with P23 million. The challenge now is to ensure that this will not go the way of the flood control corruption scandal, where unscrupulous government engineers, politicians, and private contractors colluded to produce substandard or “ghost” projects and pocketed millions in commissions at the expense of Filipino taxpayers.
The government still has many more steps to take, including ensuring security for tourists, liberalizing domestic routes to encourage competition, and simplifying tourism taxes. It must also upgrade land and sea travel infrastructure, not only air transport facilities, to provide more efficient and seamless inter-island connections.
These are the only ways for domestic tourism to thrive, and for Filipinos to discover more destinations and not to be strangers in their own country.
Facts Only
* A documentary show named “Travel Time” was hosted by Susan Calo Medina in the late 1980s.
* Flights to Siargao reached approximately P30,000 last year.
* A round-trip ticket from Manila to Siargao cost one individual P22,000.
* A one-way ticket from Tacloban to Manila via AirAsia Move cost nearly P39,000.
* The Civil Aeronautics Board fined the AirAsia Move platform P6 million for overpricing fares.
* Airfares to Batanes were priced at P27,000 in one instance.
* Philippine Airlines (PAL) agreed to impose a fare cap on Siargao at P11,000 for one-way and P22,000 for round-trip.
* Economy fares on PAL websites were reduced to at least P4,000 for one-way bookings in September.
* The DOT Secretary launched the “Discover More to Love” campaign offering over 3,000 travel deals from July to November.
* Boracay, Palawan, and Siargao were voted among the world’s top islands by *Conde Nast Traveler*.
* Sayak Airport in Siargao has a runway of about 1,300 meters and is not instrument-rated.
* The government allocated P7.8 billion this year to upgrade facilities in 19 airports, including Sayak Airport with P23 million.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The narrative pivots on the conflict between aspiration—the recognition of the Philippines' rich island geography—and systemic economic and infrastructural barriers that dictate travel feasibility. The core tension is not merely about price setting but about infrastructure disparity: the difficulty in moving affordably within the archipelago versus the perceived seamlessness of inter-island travel outside it, exemplified by Vietnam or Thailand. This sets up a critical pattern where accessible geographical beauty is rendered inaccessible by poor logistics rather than pure cost. The push for government intervention, such as fare caps and tourism campaigns, functions as a palliative measure that addresses symptoms while potentially overlooking the root cause: substandard infrastructure and governance. The mention of potential corruption in infrastructure spending introduces a powerful layer of skepticism; any promised improvement risks being absorbed by systemic failure, which forces the analysis to shift from simple economic policy to questions of institutional integrity and public trust. The implied message is that sovereignty over one's own land does not equate to sovereign control over internal connectivity, suggesting that cognitive freedom in travel is contingent upon physical and administrative competence.
What infrastructure deficits are being implicitly prioritized over tourist experience? How do short-term regulatory fixes interact with long-term infrastructural and governance challenges? If the focus remains on making destinations attractive without fixing logistics, what is the true cost imposed on local agency versus the perceived benefit of external market forces?
Sentinel — Human
The text functions as a critique of domestic travel costs, using specific economic examples and infrastructure deficits to argue for policy change, showing the structure of investigative commentary rather than pure content generation.