Oil crisis, AI to impact Filipino travel plans

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MANILA, Philippines — The oil crisis resulting from Middle East tensions will likely impact where Filipinos travel and what they choose to do, experiences platform Klook predicts.

Klook on Wednesday, March 25, unveiled the results of its Travel Pulse 2026, a commissioned study conducted last December involving 11,000 respondents across the Asia-Pacific region, including the Philippines, highlighting travel trends, preferences, and insights.

The platform's Marketing Manager for Public Relations & Influencers in the Philippines Maki Santos began by sharing some of Klook's milestones over the past year including the limited-edition GCash travel card, its allience with the Department of Tourism to enhance local experiences, an increase in partner hotels and successful campaigns in neighboring Asian markets.

Platform-wise, Klook recorded 50.7% growth among Filipino users, 39.2% growth in domestic businesses, a 127% increase in hotels, and a 113% rise in emerging destinations.

Klook Philippines General Manager Michelle Ho noted before unveiling the latest Travel Pulse results that there may have been changes due to conflicts in the Middle East, hence the Filipino travel trends presented were those unaffected by the issue.

Key findings

The results showed that 71% of Filipinos traveled domestically, with the most booked destinations being Metro Manila, Boracay, Cavite, Cebu and Pampanga.

Ho said the top considerations when choosing destinations are affordability and experiences, namely:

within budget
to create memories with companions, especially children
have meaningful experiences
ease of planning (accommodations, trasnport, visas)

On the topic of meaningful experiences, Ho shared that fare discounts were enough to encourage travelers to book flights to Hong Kong, while social media has become a major discovery channel, particularly for Vietnam.

She also shared that, for ease of planning, artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT have significantly influenced travel planning over the past 10 months.

Vietnam, in fact, led all destinations in terms of popularity, posting a 193% increase. It was followed by Taiwan at 124.4% and Thailand at 67.1%.

Ho said Filipinos are ready to fly but are keeping their travels closer to home, again citing the oil crisis as a factor, which could make travelers more conscious of their spending.

"Unpredictability leads to people choosing more intentional destinations," Ho said, acknowledging a rise in Europe preferences but such travelling to such destinations would be highly affected by the oil crisis.

As such, Northeast Asia emerged as the top region Filipinos plan to visit, covering Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, with 67% of respondents preferring these destinations.

Southeast Asia followed at 30%, while South Asia and Oceania, specifically India and Australia, accounted for 3%.

Experiences

Ho reported that Filipinos remain strict with their budgets for flights and accommodations but are 42.6% and 25.7% more willing to spend on food and experiences, respectively.

In fact, more than half of respondents intend to spend the same amount on accommodations and flights this year as they did in 2025.

Nearly 50% of respondents ranked shared experiences that bring loved ones together as a top priority when planning trips. The following are the most popular group experiences based on year-on-year growth:

Theme Parks/Cruises
- Disney Cruise (Singapore)
- Shanghai Disneyland (China)
- SunWorld (Vietnam)
- J Castles (Philippines)
- Star City (Philippines)
Tours
- Arashiyama Zoo (Japan)
- Amanohashidate & Ine (Japan)
- Nami Island (Korea)
- Alishan Day Tour (Taiwan)
Shows
- House of Dancing Water (Macau)

AI, concerts

The Travel Pulse report also revealed that millennials use AI more than Gen Z for the following travel-related purposes:

Finding travel deals (41% vs. 37.7%)
Activities research (48.9% vs. 44%)
Destination research (60.3% vs. 52%)
Flight & hotel searches (44.1% vs. 37.8%)

"AI planning [is] a synergistic loop," Ho said. "AI decides what people look at, socials (creators online) decide what they trust."

Ho noted that concert experiences remain a key focus for Klook, similar to travel for sporting events or cruises, citing the recent launch of Disney Cruise Line in Asia.

She also recounted the platform’s involvement in Taylor Swift’s six 2024 concerts in Singapore, her only Southeast Asian stop for the Eras Tour, and said Klook will provide similar support for BTS’ upcoming shows at the end of the year.

"It's becoming less predictable to know what is the next big thing," Ho said, noting the influence of social media and viral phenomena.

Ho also said Klook did not anticipate Vietnam and Taiwan to have a triple digit increase as a rising destinations, reiterating to end that the adoption of AI models in travel planning was very fast.

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