Cheaper local trips? DOT rolls out discounted travel deals, taps TikTok creators

MANILA, Philippines – Maybe it’s time to plan that next vacation closer to home.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) is pushing Filipinos to travel local, rolling out thousands of discounted hotel, tour, flight, and travel platform deals under its new domestic tourism campaign, “Discover More to Love.”

The DOT said more than 3,000 travel offers will be made available through their website, covering hotels, tour operators, airlines, and bundled travel experiences across the country. Among the participants is the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association (HSMA), whose member-hotels and resorts are offering discounts of up to 70%.

The campaign also includes more than 250 regional travel packages, as well as airfare promos from Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, AirAsia Philippines, and Sunlight Air. Travel platforms AirAsia MOVE and Klook are offering their own deals, while Mastercard is providing payment perks and cardholder privileges.

“Ang maganda sa (What’s beautiful about) Discover [More to Love] is it’s the entire industry coming together,” Tourism Secretary Bernadita Angara-Mathay said. “[The idea is to] make our hotels continue to operate even during the lean months. Kasi kaysa naman zero, kaysa naman mag-layoff pa sila (It’s better than them having zero visitors and doing layoffs).”

The campaign appears to be off to a good start. The DOT said the campaign website even crashed on the first day it was launched on Friday, June 26. Since then, Angara-Mathay said it had already generated more than P100,000 in sales, based on reports from HSMA.

The new push also comes as local travel continues to face a familiar foe: price.

For many Filipino travelers, a domestic vacation can sometimes cost as much as – or even more than – a trip to neighboring Southeast Asian countries. Angara-Mathay said elevated travel costs remain a thorn in the side of the industry, especially as fuel prices continue to weigh on airline operations and airfares.

“We encourage more competition, we encourage LCCs or low-cost carriers to come in,” Angara-Mathay said on Monday, June 29. “And then encourage investments too. Invest in services that will link islands together.”

DOT, TikTok’s Wanderlust Week

The DOT is also bringing its local travel pitch to TikTok, where many younger travelers now get ideas for their next trip.

Through “Wanderlust Week,” the agency is partnering with the social media platform and travel content creators to spotlight destinations across the Philippines. The series follows TikTok creators Renée Dominique (@heyimreneedominique), Léah Good Vibes (@heyoleahpinay), Mark Odea (@markodea8), and Mike Yu (@immikeyu) as they explore Cebu, Siargao, and Manila.

“[In the previous] generation, they plan their trips through guidebooks and basically the old-school tools. Tourists nowadays, they really use TikTok to discover,” Yves Gonzalez, TikTok’s head of public policy for the Philippines, told reporters on Monday during the series launch. “The beauty of TikTok is you really see real creators, real people with real experiences.”

While much of the DOT’s recent push has focused on getting Filipinos to travel locally, the TikTok series could also help reach younger foreign travelers who are still deciding where to go next. The Philippines has already welcomed around 3 million international visitors so far this year, with arrivals growing modestly upward of 6% from last year’s levels. – Rappler.com