Philippine Airlines (PAL) hopes to restore its domestic operations to full capacity by the fourth quarter when passenger volume traditionally surges during the holidays.  PAL President Capt. Stanley Ng said the flag carrier’s domestic capacity had reached 80% of its pre-pandemic level after suffering from debilitating travel restrictions at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.  PAL VP for sales Bud …

Boracay and El Nido were the top choice post-event destinations of delegates to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit in Manila held April 20 to 22.  Tours to the two Philippine destinations were fully booked by WTTC delegates, consistent to the recognition received by Boracay and El Nido from many international travel publications and online tourism sites.  …

The recovery of Puerto Princesa as a top tourist destination will depend on the strong collaboration and cooperation between government and the private sector.  Last year, Puerto Princesa’s recovery started when it reopened its doors to travelers. Then, disaster struck – Typhoon Odette ravaged the city, stalling tourism recovery efforts.  The pandemic erased approximately P10 billion in potential tourism revenues …

Air travel posted a strong rebound in February 2022 as the impact of the Covid-19 variant Omicron moderated outside of Asia, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced recently.  On the other hand, the war in Ukraine did not have any major effect on traffic levels.  The recovery in air travel is gathering steam as governments in many parts of …

Filipino consumers who access piracy sites for movies during the pandemic lockdown grew from 61% from only 49%, according to a study by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL).  IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba cited data from a recent YouGov survey commissioned by the Coalition Against Piracy to emphasize the significance of its partnership with the Motion …

The Philippine travel and tourism sectors is projected to grow at an annual average rate of 6.7% over the next 10 years, outpacing the expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 5.6%, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).  WTTC president and chief executive Julia Simpson said at the WTTC Annual Global Summit in Manila that employment …

Losing subscribers for the first time in more than a decade, Netflix must confront the challenge of stagnation from a position of strength.  A drop of just 200,000 users — less than 0.1 percent of its total customer base — was enough to send Wall Street panicking, with shares plunging more than 30%.  The loss of subscribers and the company’s …

The country’s economic growth is projected to return to 6.5% by end of 2022, only to slightly fall back to 6.3% in 2023 as a result of increased economic activity due to election spending, according to the latest World Economic Outlook of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  This IMF estimate for the Philippines is higher than the 5.3% average growth …

SM Foundation (SMFI) is inviting incoming college freshmen to apply for the SM College Scholarship program for School Year 2022-2023.  The SM Scholarship Program started from the vision of the late SM patriarch, Henry “Tatang” Sy, Sr. He believed that if you send one child from an economically challenged family to college, that child would have more opportunities to have …

The heightened implementation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)’s digitalization transformation (DX) programs, complemented by its growing workforce of young and skilled professionals under the Duterte administration, enabled the agency to steadily improve its collection performance and broaden the taxpayer base in 2021.  BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay reported that 4.63 million business taxpayers were registered last year despite the …