Bacolod ranked least expensive tourist city in Philippines

Online travel platform Agoda has found that the Bacolod City in Negros Occidental is the country’s cheapest tourist destination. 

Agoda analyzed the average room rates of tourist destinations for April 2023, and after crunching the numbers saw that rooms in Bacolod cost an average of P2,650. 

Beyond affordable room rates, the company noted that Bacolod — coined the “City of Smiles” — is a culinary spot worth visiting with dishes such as Cansi (soup with beef shank, bone marrow, and batuan fruit), Piaya (bread with muscovado and glucose syrup), and the famous Chicken Inasal. 

Within the Asia-Pacific region, the most affordable city according to the company’s data is Khon Kaen in Thailand with an average room rate of just over P1,600. 

Completing the Top 5 were Malaysia’s Sibu, Indonesia’s Surakarta, India’s Puri, and Bacolod rounding it off although its average was the same as Vietnam’s Ninh Binh. 

Other Philippine cities had lower averages than seventh-placed Chiba in Japan (P3,755). These are were Iloilo City, Dumaguete City, Davao City and Puerto Galera. 

While the cities mentioned may have cheap room rates, their tourist spots are guaranteed gems to visit like Khon Kaen’s Ton Tann Night Market, Makuhari Seaside Park and DisneySea in Chiba, and the Asia Art Center in Gwangju, South Korea.