Valentine’s Day in the Philippines: what women want and what men really think

What are the expectations of Filipinos towards the holiday of love? What does the perfect Valentine’s Day look like according to women and men? Which gifts are the most expected and which should be avoided? Picodi Analysis Team decided to look into one of the most commercialised holidays in the world and check how much love is still there.

The popularity of this holiday is evident if you look at the number of Filipinos who declare that they celebrate Valentine’s Day — a staggering 79%. Although an overwhelming majority of people prepare a surprise mainly for their significant other, there are some who don’t leave out their friends (20%) or relatives (19%).

An average Filipino is going to spend ₱1759 on a Valentine’s Day gift. Men spend around ₱335 more than women do: ₱1945 vs ₱1610.

What’s interesting is that almost half (47%) of Filipinos don’t think about Valentine’s Day gifts until February. This is consistent with Picodi’s internal data, according to which we can observe a spike in shopping activity around two weeks before Valentine’s Day. Especially in demand are products such as jewellery or perfumes. 9% of Filipinos leave shopping until the last moment — 13th and 14th of February.

Women’s take on Valentine’s Day

What is it that sparks joy in a woman’s heart on Valentine’s Day – a gift, displays of affection and love or perhaps a promise of commitment? The survey results show that both material and non-material aspects are equally important for almost half of the surveyed women (48%). 14% of women find gifts to be important on Valentine’s Day whereas 38% of respondents would rather spend time with their partner.

Women chose flowers (46%), gift vouchers (40%), sweets (31%), jewellery (30%) and Valentine’s Day cards (29%) to be the perfect Valentine’s Day gift whereas sex toys (24%), money (23%) and lingerie (13%) were deemed as unpopular gift choices. Interestingly, Valentine’s Day cards and flowers were also voted as the least desirable gift.

What is the perfect way to spend Valentine’s Day according to women? The survey results don’t give the perfect recipe for a successful Valentine’s Day date, however, among the most popular activities were having a romantic dinner in a restaurant (37%), going to the movies (28%), going out of town (26%), watching a movie at home (22%) and cooking dinner together (20%).

It turns out that relaxing doing nothing is a bad idea (20%), same as seeing a play (17%), playing board games (14%), spending time actively (11%) or going to a concert (10%).

Men’s take on Valentine’s Day

The answers of the surveyed men show that pleasing them can be more difficult than pleasing women. 18% of men expect a material gift from their partner, 35% does not want any gifts but they would like to spend time together with their significant other and 47% declares that they would like to get both.

The most desired gifts:

• Valentine’s Day card (39%)
• Electronic devices (34%)
• Clothing (33%)
• Sweets (22%)
• Money (22%)

The least desired gifts:

• Valentine’s Day card (24%)
• Sex toys (23%)
• Flowers (20%)
• Plush toys (19%)
• Underwear (16%)

Valentine’s Day cards seem to have stirred quite a controversy among men since they voted those items as both the most and least desirable gifts.

What does the perfect Valentine’s Day look for men? In this case, they partially agree with the fairer sex: men would like to go to the cinema or a restaurant, make love, go out of town or watch a movie at home. The list of unfortunate Valentine’s Day dates among men looks almost the same as the one compiled by women.

Because the thought is all that matters

On average Filipinos spend ₱1759 on gifts (around $34), which places them last in the ranking of 38 countries. People also don’t splurge on gifts in Belarus ($34) and India ($35).

Valentine’s Day drives the economy the most in Ireland, Thailand and the UK, where more than $120 is spent on average on gifts.

Methodology

This report is based on results of a survey conducted in the second half of January 2019 among 6400 people from 38 countries where Valentine’s Day is celebrated. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate for January 2019.

Public Use

Are you willing to share the information and infographics about Valentine’s Day in the Philippines and other countries with your readers? Feel free to use all the data and infographics presented in this report for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage.