Filipino travelers continue to name Hong Kong as their favorite travel destination.

Outbound travel from the Philippines for the second half of 2008 is expected to see year-on-year growth of 5.20 percent, according to the latest MasterCard Worldwide Index of Travel report. The report also says that Filipinos will make an estimated one million departures in the second half of the year for business and leisure purposes.

According to the report, Asia/Pacific is set to see a steady growth in the number of outbound travelers for the second half of 2008 despite the inflation pinch felt all across the region.

Singapore is expected to show the strongest year-on-year growth of 23 percent, with more than 4 million departures for leisure and business purposes expected over the next six months. Other markets that are anticipated to register healthy year-on-year growth include China (12 percent), Korea (11 percent), Thailand (10 percent) and Hong Kong (6 percent).

"In spite of global economic uncertainty and rising inflation, outbound travel in Asia/Pacific is poised for steady growth over the rest of 2008. This is largely due to the fact than income and employment have not been seriously affected by the global credit crunch; and higher inflation has yet to translate into higher prices in plane tickets and costs of accommodation. Should these conditions change, however, the outlook will be very different," observed Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, economic advisor to MasterCard Worldwide in Asia/Pacific.

Overall, outbound travelers from Asia/Pacific are expected to make around 88.3 million resident departures in the next six months, with Malaysia and China together expected to account for more than half of the departures. Malaysians are expected to make 25.2 million departures for personal and business travel in the second half of 2008, the highest levels anticipated in the region. China is a close second with 24.4 million projected resident departures for the next six months.

The report revealed Filipinos’ fondness for Hong Kong as their top personal or leisure travel destination (52 percent of the surveyed respondents). The other favorite destinations for leisure travel for Filipinos were Singapore (40 percent) and Thailand (32 percent). The most popular activities for Filipino personal travelers when abroad were general sightseeing and scenic spots (88 percent), experiencing different cuisines (84 percent) and rest and relaxation (80 percent).