Philippines wins big at World Travel Awards Asia 2024

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines wrapped up its inaugural hosting of the 2024 World Travel Awards (WTA) Asia & Oceania Gala Ceremony on Tuesday, September 3, winning eight titles for Asian categories.

At the 31st edition of the WTA, the Philippines cemented its position as one of Asia’s best tourist destinations after it clinched the following awards:

For the fourth time this year, the historic Walled City of Intramuros was also once again named Asia’s Leading Tourist Attraction 2024. It also secured the title in the Asian category in 2016, 2020 and 2022.  

One of the tourist destinations of the country, Boracay, was likewise recognized as Asia’s Leading Luxury Island Destination while Cebu was feted as Asia’s Leading Wedding Destination.

Aside from these awards, the tourism campaign launched by the Department of Tourism last year, “Love the Philippines,” was given the Asia's Leading Marketing Campaign 2024 accolade.

While the Philippines is only vying for seven awards from its nominations, WTA gave Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco a special award called Transformational Leader Award in Tourism Governance for her “outstanding contributions to tourism governance” and “vision, tireless dedication, and the tangible impacts of her initiatives have set a new benchmark in tourism leadership, not just in the Philippines but across Asia and Oceania.”

Frasco said the award was “very unexpected” as it is a discretionary award from the WTA body.

“I'm very grateful for this honor. I, together, with our team at the Department tourism or attached agencies and our private tourism stakeholders have worked day and night to really ensure that the Philippine tourism will recover and that it transcends to its rightful place in Asia and the world,” she told reporters in mixed Filipino and English.

The tourism chief also reacted to the recognition awarded to the controversial tourism campaign “Love the Philippines,” saying that she is grateful for it.

“It is an affirmation that the world and Asia has come to love the Philippines. And that this campaign has opened the eyes of the world to the many nuances of the  the Filipino identity and our destinations,” Frasco said.

“Throug