The year 2025 has set the stage for the world to rediscover the many destinations – popular and emerging – that the Philippines has to offer, travel spots worthy enough for a tourist to take hours-long flights just to reach.

Home to the vibrant tropical paradise of Boracay, surfing haven of Siargao, and the rich historical spots of Manila, to name a few, the Philippines again made a mark with the various international awards and citations it sealed last year.

At the prestigious World Travel Awards alone, the country claimed its 7th consecutive recognition since 2019 as Asia’s Leading Dive Destination, Asia’s Leading Beach Destination for the 8th time, and Asia’s Leading Island Destination.

Boracay Island similarly made a back-to-back win as Asia’s Leading Luxury Island Destination while Clark Freeport Zone secured global recognition as Asia’s Leading Meetings and Conference Destination.

Luxury travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler (CNT) likewise named Boracay among the world’s top islands in its 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards, alongside Palawan, and Siargao.

The islands ranked 4th, 5th, and 7th, respectively, on the Asia list, joining other beach destinations, such as Phú Quốc in Vietnam and Phuket in Thailand, determined outstanding by the magazine’s readers in the United Kingdom.

A difficult year

While the country continues to gain world recognition, the government admits that 2025 had been a “difficult year” for Philippine tourism as calamities and challenges had an impact on its inbound arrivals.

In a recent interview, Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said the Philippines was hit with 31 travel alerts from countries from all over the world in the second half of 2025 alone.

As of Dec. 20, the Philippines recorded 5.6 million in foreign visitor arrivals, nearly equal to the inbound figures it logged in 2024, and short of the 2019 recorded levels before the pandemic, with China ranking sixth at 262,144, behind South Korea, the United States, Japan, Australia, and Canada.

“We cannot deny all the headwinds and challenges that we have faced this year, it’s been an incredible difficult year, especially for tourism, with a budget that has been slashed by 93 percent. We had our hands tied,” Frasco said.

“Notwithstanding that, ang daming first in Philippine tourism na nagawa natin – transit tours, medical tourism concierge, at siyempre, patuloy ang ibang innovative projects natin (we had so many firsts in Philippine tourism – the transit tours, medical tourism, and of course, the innovative projects that we continue to implement).”

She, however, noted that the decline is seen in particular markets, whereas there has been “robust growth in other markets,” such as the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, and several other reliable sources.

This 2026, Frasco said, the country will strengthen its global campaign to pitch “Love the Philippines,” as well as measures to make sure tourist spending and stays grow. (PNA)