Benise Balaoing

Visitors flock to Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

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Boracay Island

ABS-CBN News

MANILA -- The Philippines needs more investments and improved connectivity to boost its tourism numbers, Tourism Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay said.Speaking on ANC&#x27;s &quot;Business Outlook,&quot; Angara-Mathay said the tourism industry is &quot;doing well.&quot;&quot;To be frank, it hasn&#x27;t quite reached the numbers that we aspire to have...and admittedly there are gaps to be addressed or to be filled,&quot; she said. &quot;But I do want to stress that it is a very important part of the economy.&quot;&quot;If I look at figures last year, tourism expenditure amounted to P4 trillion. It was supported by 7.7 million jobs. So those are not numbers you trifle with.&quot;Angara-Mathay said the agency needs to work harder to boost the country&#x27;s connectivity.&quot;We are an archipelago, and all foreign tourists come here by plane, not like our neighbors, where most of them are landlocked and just have to cross borders. In this case, airfares figure a great deal. We need to have more flights, more routes, better ways to access destinations,&quot; she said.The official said the Department of Tourism now has an undersecretary who is consulting with airport authorities, airport operators, and the airlines to see how fares can be made more affordable.The way that we are doing this is actually to find ways to incentivize road development initiatives. One [is to] maybe waive some fees and do co-branding programs with the airlines. So those are some of the ways, and even allow night rating,&quot; she said.Beyond this, however, the government needs more investments in tourism, she said.&quot;So we found out that by 2028 we need to fill a gap of 126,000 rooms. So we need investments in resorts and luxury hotels, other facilities like sports facilities, wellness facilities, and the like,&quot; she said.&quot;I&#x27;ve met two heads of foreign chambers of commerce that [said] I&#x27;d like to bring my family to discover more sites in the Philippines, but you don&#x27;t have enough luxury hotels.&#x27; So this is real. It&#x27;s not only empirical. It&#x27;s a real requirement, a real need articulated by people who are not only in the business but who are travelers themselves.&quot;Angara-Mathay also shared that some Japanese investors have expressed interest in investing in tourism in the Philippines.&quot;Just coming off the state visit of the president, we organized for the first time a roundtable composed of Japanese heads of conglomerates and mega banks and other leaders of high-tech and tourism companies,&quot; she related. &quot;We were able to identify expressions of interest amounting to $3.4 billion in direct and indirect projects that will support tourism as well as create facilities. Right, so that&#x27;s something that I&#x27;d like to work on not only in Japan but other investors in the world,&quot; she said.The Philippines welcomed <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2026/6/18/ph-welcomes-more-than-2-9-million-tourists-from-january-to-mid-june-1506" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2,955,014 tourists</a> from January 1 to June 16 this year.<div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2026/5/7/philippine-tourism-faces-worst-shock-since-covid-as-flights-cut-costs-surge-1122" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Philippine tourism faces worst shock since COVID as flights cut, costs surge—industry group</a></div>

The Philippines needs more investments and improved connectivity to boost its tourism numbers, Tourism Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay said.

The Philippines needs more investments and improved connectivity to boost its tourism numbers, Tourism Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay said.

More flights, investments needed to boost PH tourism—DOT

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More flights, investments needed to boost PH tourism—DOT

Benise Balaoing,

ABS-CBN News

Published July 27, 2026 05:38 PM PHT

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Philippines

tourism

investments

infrastructure

connectivity

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