The Philippine Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) is increasing its marketing spend not just on its top source markets, but also on reinvigorating potentially big markets in Asia, including India and China.
“Apart from implementing more joint promotional initiatives for South Korea, the US, and Japan as our top three source markets, the TPB is focusing on India, whose nationals can enter the Philippines visa-free for a period of 14 days for tourism purposes,” said TPB chief operating officer Maria Margarita Nograles.
Inbound from India – breaching the 60,000 pax for the period January to September 2025 – is expected to grow exponentially since the introduction of the visa-free policy in June 2025 as well as commencement of Air India’s nonstop flights from Delhi to Manila five times a week in October.
The stronger marketing commitment comes as the Department of Tourism (DoT) numbers show that the destination has again missed its foreign arrivals targets, ending 2025 with 5.6 million foreign tourists versus the 8.4 million target and, in 2024, 5.9 million foreign tourists versus the 7.7 million target. These figures are also way below the 8.2 million arrivals posted in 2019.
Norgrales added that TPB, the marketing arm of DoT, is also “strengthening its efforts in China, as the country’s eVisa service for its nationals travelling to the Philippines for business or tourism purposes was recently resumed”.
It is understood that the slowdown in Philippine inbound the past several years is due to the drastic drop in tourist arrivals from China – once the destination’s primary source of inbound. The Philippines received an estimated 265,000 Chinese visitors last year, down from 312,000 in 2024 and nearly two million in 2019.
Gastronomy will form a bigger part of the global promotional initiatives as the Philippines is now officially on the Michelin-Guide’s Most Exciting Food Destination for 2026.
Nograles said Iloilo, with its UNESCO recognition as Creative City of Gastronomy and World Heritage Site, “is gaining traction in the US market”.
TPB will also continue joint promotions with foreign tour operators, consolidators, online travel agencies, and airlines, apart from fam trips that take media and travel trade participants “to known destinations in the Philippines”.
Improvements will also be made to institutional B2B events involving foreign participation mounted by TPB, such as the Philippine Travel Exchange and MICECONnect.
In addition, TPB is refining the perks for its Membership Programme to facilitate linkages among its members, communities, international travel agents, tour operators, local government units, and DMCs for possible collaboration on promoting destination Philippines.
