Cosmo: Whoa! The Philippines Just Won Three Major Titles At The 2025 World Travel Awards

The Philippines has done it again—and yes, you can be proud of this. Our country just scored big at the global edition of the World Travel Awards, bagging three major titles: World's Leading Dive Destination, World's Leading City Destination (Manila), and the World's Leading Luxury Island Destination (Boracay). These latest global accolades shine an even brighter spotlight on the Philippines’ growing prominence on the international travel stage.

What Are The World Travel Awards?

ICYDK, The World Travel Awards (WTA) is considered one of the most prestigious honors in the travel and hospitality space. Every year since 1993, the program has recognized excellence across various travel, tourism, and hospitality sectors. Winners are determined through a year-long online voting campaign worldwide. The votes come from qualified executives working in travel and tourism, as well as consumer travel buyers.

Titles in the World Travel Awards are given out country-wide, region-wide, and globally. Back in October, the Philippines won six regional awards at the World Travel Awards Asia and Oceania leg, but as you now know, we didn't stop there, and we actually won on a global scale too.

But this is hardly the first time we brought home wins at the World Travel Awards. This is the seventh-straight win for the Philippines in the World's Leading Dive Destination category, an award we've held since 2019. Specifically in 2025, we defended this title against other contenders such as Fiji, Galapagos, Mexico, and Seychelles, to name a few.

Manila—the recipient of the World's Leading City Destination award—also achieved a three-peat in its category, beating out other Metropolises like Dubai, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Sydney, among others.

Meanwhile, Boracay earned back-to-back recognition as the World’s Leading Luxury Island Destination 2025, beating out Jersey, Mustique in St. Vincent & The Grenadines, and The Bahamas.

In a statement released to the public, Department of Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco thanked the local government units, community-based tourism groups, resort and hotel operators, transport partners, cultural workers, and all tourism frontliners for their work in elevating visitor experiences nationwide.

"These recognitions truly belong to our nation’s tourism workforce. We acknowledge the efforts of our dive professionals, Manila and Boracay tourism stakeholders, and our partners across the regions as we commit to sustaining collaboration to build a more competitive and resilient tourism landscape for the Philippines," the Tourism Chief added.

As a trio, these global titles capture the full spectrum of what Philippine tourism does best: from marine wonders and cultural hubs to high-end island escapes.

See the full list of winners of the 2025 World Travel Awards on their website.