25 October 2025, Seoul - Ambassador-designate Bernadette Fernandez, along with Consul General Edwin Gil Mendoza and Tourism Attaché Dr. Erwin Balane, visited the “Cebu Pacific Happy Store”, a pop-up store at Seongsu-dong, Seoul on 24 October 2025.  Ambassador-designate Fernandez was welcomed by Mr. Hyuk Shin Kang, the airlines’ Country Manager in the ROK and other Cebu Pacific officials from the Philippines.

Cebu Pacific’s pop-up store was an experiential place with the theme of five travel destinations in the Philippines, namely, Boracay, Cebu, Clark, Manila and Palawan.  In the five spaces, visitors enjoyed a variety of programs such as photo zones, quiz events and other experiences related to the five travel destinations.  One also gets a taste of Filipino cuisine after visiting the five areas.

In her remarks, Ambassador-designate Fernandez congratulated Cebu Pacific for organizing the pop-up store and encouraged the Korean nationals to visit the Philippines so they can experience Filipino hospitality, love for family and diversity.  The pop-up store would allow Korean travelers to plan ahead once they select PH as their next travel destination given the short distance required to get away from the cold weather in the next few months.  They would then experience good Filipino food, a relaxing swim and therapeutic white sands in the Philippines.

Tourism Attaché Dr. Balane, in his speech, thanked Cebu Pacific for bringing travelers to the Philippines for many years.  He expressed gratitude to the influencers and media in the ROK who shared information on the Philippines to their viewers and clientele in their respective media platforms.  He voiced confidence that their opinions and perspectives would further strengthen the interest of Korean travelers in the Philippines.  He looked forward to engaging with them to further bolster their partnership and bring them to more than half of the 7,641 islands in the Philippine archipelago and discover new products and destinations.

He informed the audience that the Philippines was once again recently awarded as Asia’s leading dive, island and beach destinations by World Travel Awards for 2025.  Boracay won back-to-back as Asia’s leading luxury island destination while Clark Freeport Zone was globally-recognized as Asia’s leading meetings and conference destination.  The Department of tourism also earned global distinction as Asia’s leading tourist board.

The Cebu Pacific pop-up store was open to the public from 23 to 29 October 2025 near Exit 3 of Seongsu Station on Subway Line No. 2. END