The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced that the Philippines won the Best Diving Destination award at the 2024 Diving Resort Travel (DRT) Show held earlier this month in Beijing.

Aside from this, the country also won the Best Tourism Promotion Partnership award at the same event.

In an official statement to the media, Philippine ambassador to China Jaime FlorCruz said that the citations are proof that the current administration’s efforts to present the country as a premier global diving destination are working.

FlorCruz likewise cited the huge revenue potential in strengthening this particular niche in the Philippine tourism sector. In the past year, diving contributed around PHP 73 billion to the tourism industry’s revenues, twice what it contributed in 2022.

Not resting on its laurels

At present, the Philippines is focused on developing a number of specialized tourism segments, with dive tourism at the top of its list of priorities.

Earlier this year, the Department of Tourism (DOT) announced plans to establish additional five hyperbaric chambers in key dive destinations in the country including Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro, Boracay, Cebu, Negros Oriental, as well as Camiguin.

The five hyperbaric chambers augment the capacity of the 15 chambers currently in use across the country.

To date, the Philippine Commission on Sports Scuba Diving has developed and audited at least 120 dive destinations for both local and foreign diving enthusiasts.