QUEZON CITY (PIA)— The Department of Tourism highlights its 50th founding year with several nominations at the 30th World Travel Awards (WTA) – Asia Category.

The Philippines is nominated in six categories such as Leading Island Destination, Beach Destination, Dive Destination, Wedding Destination, Tourist Attraction (Intramuros) and tourist board (Department of Tourism).

Intramuros in the City of Manila was recently named Asia’s Leading Tourist Attraction at the 29th WTA in Vietnam in September 2022.

Prior to this, the walled city was also previously awarded in 2016 and 2020 and has been consistently nominated annually since 2016.

DOT is actively campaigning for votes in order to win this year’s set of awards and encourages the public to support vote via https://www.worldtravelawards.com/register.

Celebrating with stakeholders

DOT is also set to commemorate its 50th anniversary with stakeholders at the Manila Hotel this June 27 with the theme “GINTO: Greater Innovations, New Tourism Opportunities”.

Prior to this, Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco and other tourism officials recently celebrated DOT’s 50th year with tour guides and guide organization leaders through a luncheon at Casa Blanca, Intramuros last May 11.

“I could not find it in my heart to celebrate it with anybody else other than our frontliners,” she said.

Secretary Garcia-Frasco also lauded the tourism frontliners for advocating local sites and culture to locals and foreigners alike.

In March, the secretary also conducted a series of listening fora with tourism workers who play a crucial role in the country’s post-pandemic economic recovery with the rapid increase of tourism returns.

DOT reports a total of 2,653,858 tourist arrivals from February to December 2022 in comparison to 1,482,535 arrivals from January to December 2021.

The department also reports 39,947,584 regional overnight travelers in 2022, a drastic increase from 13,985,579 in 2021. (GG/PIA with reports from Department of Tourism & Intramuros Administration)