Wondered why your feed is full of Philippine maps? Just in time for summer (or dry season), an interactive web app is making waves on social media, allowing users to check how many provinces they've visited in the Philippines in their lifetime.
My Philippines Travel Level, publicly launched this April 13, allows users to shade the areas they've been to in the Philippines—anywhere from passing by the area on route to their vacation to living in that province—and gives them their Travel Level which they can share on social media.
How the My Philippines Travel Level Works
It's simple: just visit the website, just click on a province, and choose the travel level according to this:
- Lived there - you spent a significant portion of your life in that area
- Stayed there - you slept at least a night in that area
- Visited there - you spent some hours exploring the area
- Alighted there - you just dropped off for a short stopover, layover, or transfer
- Passed there - you passed by that area but did not set foot
- Never been there - you need to travel there soon
Once you're done, you can check your level at the upper right corner of the page. You can save a copy too, which you can share or just keep to yourself.
How the My Philippines Travel Level Was Created
Singapore-based Filipino software engineer Denz del Villar created the app after he was inspired by a similar program made for Japan. Del Villar told SPOT.ph that he lived in Japan for two years so when he encountered JapanEx in 2019, he thought the Philippines should have its own interactive travel map. (FYI, Taiwan has its own version, too.)
Fast forward to April 5, Del Villar was "bored" during a 10-hour layover at the airport in Singapore so he started creating the Philippine version. The website was live for a few days, but only he could see it. On April 13, while on vacation in Turkey, he decided to share it via Instagram using a sticker "show your Philippines travel level". A few hours later, he posted it on Reddit.
"Hindi ko alam how it blew up on Facebook. I think I would credit it to Macoy Dubs," he said.
So how many have used this program? Del Villar said he added the flag counter feature to the website and surprise, surprise: more than 236,000 of those who clicked were from the Philippines (that's 86% of the visitors). It also recorded 174 other countries that visited the site.
Other than that, he said he doesn't have any leaderboard or other data stored so rest assured your data is safe. This also means that once you're done updating the map, it's best to save it because once the website refreshes, your data is all gone and you'll have to do it again if you still want to.
He thanked those who gave him feedback and suggestions on how to improve the site. Some even suggested he create other versions, like a dating map that could track if you've dated someone from different cities or provinces. Don't worry, he'll get back to it once his vacation is over.
Want to create your own iteration of the interactive map? You may use his source code here.
A Call to See More of the Philippines
Del Villar said he's happy to see that his timeline gets filled with individual maps.
"Nakaka-happy, binabasa ko lahat ng nakikita ko, 'yung iba may backstories... Nakita ko rin 'yung ibang mga tao na ang daming palipat-lipat so ang daming pula."
Through this app, Del Villar also discovered his Philippine travel is "embarrassingly" at level 62. He plans to visit more provinces—like Palawan, Central Visayas, and Batanes—when he comes back to the Philippines.
"May mga tao na na-realize nila ah, hindi pa pala sila nakapunta, for example mga nakatira sa Manila, hindi pa nila napuntahan Visayas or Mindanao so realization siya sa mga tao na I need to travel more in the Philippines. Ang saya."
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While he doesn't have an official tally of who has the highest level, he said "may winner na po" when he saw former Vice President Leni Robredo's map in full color. Her final tally? Level 315.
"Siguro iba-iba 'yung experience, pero most of us siguro hindi naman VP Leni levels na napuntahan na lahat so maybe for most of us, it inspires us to go to places we've never been to. 'Yung iba binookmark 'yung link, nag-set na yata ng alarm in one year or three years to check back, or in a periodic way to update their maps," he said.
"I think what's next is to visit the places na hindi pa natin nabisita and siguro to appreciate 'yung map natin naa-update as we gain more experiences in traveling."
* This story originally appeared on Spot.ph. Minor edits have been made by the Preview.ph editors.
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