25 SEPTEMBER 2023, MANILA — After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of COVID-19 as a global public health emergency, more countries, including the Philippines, have relaxed travel restrictions causing people to make up for lost time during pandemic, resulting in "revenge” travel trends. This allowed favorite travel destinations to return to life before covid-19, opening once again the gates for land, air, and sea travel.
With that, the Philippine Ports Authority has launched on Monday, September 25, 2023, its #PPAsyalTayo campaign in time for the expected influx of passengers during 'Ber' months to further advocate traveling via improved and new seaports to boost the passenger operations of ports and help the economy by local travel via sea.
"Kapag sinabi po kasi nating tara sakay tayo sa barko, karaniwan sa mga misconception ay madumi, matagal ang byahe, walang mauupuan sa terminal, at mainit habang nag-aantay. We want to change those negative perceptions in sea travel, kung inyo pong mabibisita ang mga pantalan natin ngayon mas pinalaki na, aircon po yan, maluwag, at walang pinagkaiba sa airport na bibili ka nalang ng ticket at mag-aantay ng susunod na byahe. Gusto po nating ipakita sa mga kababayan natin na mas enjoy magbyahe mula sa mga ports natin ngayon dahil unang-unang pwede niyong dalhin sa barko ang sasakyan niyo, marami na ring mabibilhan ng pagkain sa mga pantalan, convenient mag-antay sa mga passenger terminals, at mas marami kayong malilibot na tourist destinations kapag port to port because the Philippines is an archipelagic country," said PPA General Manager Jay Santiago in a statement.
In 2022 during the 'Ber' months, PPA recorded a total number of 19,688,365 passengers in its 25 Port Management Offices (PMOs). The highest number of passengers recorded at almost 6 million were reached at the Port of Iloilo on said period, followed by the Ports of Batangas, Jordan (PMO Panay/ Guimaras), Babak (PMO Davao) and Calapan (PMO Mindoro).
PASSENGER STATISTICS
Passenger traffic at PPA ports in 2022 has reached 59,192, 976, more than twice the total number of passengers served in 2021 recorded at 23,076,974 individuals. More ports opened this year to cater to the demands of the passenger increase including 13 completed port projects, with 33 more ongoing projects, of which 19 are set to be completed by the end of 2023.
“It is expected that passenger traffic at ports will continually increase given the rebound of the economy and the tourism industry as we move forward to the post-pandemic phase and fortunately, we are prepared for this since even during the height of the pandemic, we pushed for the continuous construction and improvement of our facilities which we inaugurated and opened to the public in the past months,” GM Santiago added.
ORIGINAL MUSIC VIDEO AND LOGO
PPA also launched its latest #PPAsyalTayo Music video campaign which features travel destinations around the Philippines that can be accessed via sea ports and is 100% originally made and produced in-house by PPA and its employees with no additional budget allocation but only the utilization of available resources, together with the original song "Lakbay Pinas" composed and sung by the PPA Chorale.
The #PPAsyalTayo Logo was also originally produced and created in-house without tapping outside sources. The logo tells the story of the places and ports any traveler can visit starting from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
The #PPAsyalTayo campaign is expected to bring higher number of passengers at ports this Ber months and help the local economy rebound from the reeling effects of the pandemic.
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