THE number of people who traveled by sea within the country inched slightly higher in the second quarter of the year, data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) revealed.

Latest information from the PPA showed that total passenger traffic in the April to June period reached 14.04 million. This is higher by 1.61 percent than the 13.88 million recorded in the same three-month period in 2008.

The growth came despite continuing fierce competition for passengers coming from local budget airlines.

Sea passenger traffic remained heaviest within the Visayas, the PPA said, with the number of passengers reaching 4.83 million during the period.

This was followed by the Southern Luzon area, with 4.1 million passengers, the Northern Mindanao area with 2.5 million and Southern Mindanao with 1.96 million passengers for the period.

Passenger traffic was lightest in the Manila and Northern Luzon areas, where only 661,150 people traveled by sea.

This compares to last year?s traffic numbers of 810,590 passengers from Metro Manila, 4.16 million in Southern Luzon, 2.65 million in Northern Mindanao and 1.38 million in Southern Mindanao.

These low figures are due, in part, to the fact that most travelers use land routes for moving around in these areas.

Industry watchers expect the passenger traffic on sea routes to remain relatively flat as competition among airlines pushes airfares even lower.