Industry News Updates brought to you by MY RANGGO Hospitality Magazine for the week 28 June – 4 July 2025.
Our Industry News Headlines:-
- AirAsia voted World’s Best Low-Cost Airline 2025
- Ralph Allen Santos Diageo World Class PH Bartender of the Year
- Palawan Beach announced Asia’s Best Beach
- Philippines lags with 7th Place Tourism Ranking
- NTDP 2023-2030 Assessment Forum held
- Quake Prediction hits Japan’s tourism arrivals
- DoorDash Launches Drone Delivery Service
- Spanish scrutiny turns to Booking.com
- Booking.com’s European Woes Continue
Philippines lags with 7th Place Tourism Ranking
Content creator Thea Tan went viral this week with a post lamenting the Philippines 7th place ranking against other Asian tourist destinations.
Tan’s post spoke of the significant difference in tourist arrival numbers to the Philippines, despite
Jaw-dropping beaches and [a] vibrant culture.
Figures released by Outbox Company show that – out of a total of 48.5 million tourists arriving in Southeast Asia in the first 4 months of 2024 – Malaysia bagged 13.4 million tourists and Thailand’s welcomed 12.09 million.
The Philippines attracted just 2.1 million tourist arrivals, ranking it 7th in Southeast Asia for tourist arrivals.
Tan’s post resulted in many people, including tourism experts, listing poor internal transport connections, and the high costs of domestic flights, transport and hotel rooms, as reasons tourists choose other Southeast Asian countries over the Philippines.
But tourism researcher Eylla Gutierrez cautioned against focusing intently on arrival numbers. Gutierrez countered that tourism revenue reached an all-time high of P760Million in 2024, as a result of shifting the focus to attracting higher spending tourists over high volume.
The TPB (Tourism Promotions Board) Performance Reports, delivered during this weeks NTDP Assessment Forum (see below), does support an ongoing downward slide overall in visitor arrivals.
Outbox Company is a travel, hospitality and tourism industry travel insights and intelligence company, based in Vietnam.
NTDP 2023-2030 Assessment Forum held.
The National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) 2023-2028 Assessment Forum was held on Monday 30th June 2025. Industry experts, associations and officials gathered at The Conrad Manila to contribute to a midterm assessment of the NTDP 2023-2028.
The program included an overview of performance, delivered by the Tourism Promotions Board COO, Marga Nograles, and Focus Group Discussions. Attendees included stakeholders from the main tourism and hotel associations, travel and tour operators, and representatives from the transport industry.
Attention was given to the accomplishments of the NTDP so far, and challenges to its progress. Of greatest concern was the continued slide in tourist arrival numbers.
It was reported that the 2024 NTDP Tourist Arrival target of 7.7 million inbound visitors was not met, with 5.95 million inbound visitors recorded. And the first 5 months of 2025 shows a further drop of 1.2% on inbound tourists compared to the same period in 2024.
The greatest drops in arrivals being seen are for the South Korean (-19%), Taiwanese (-11.2%) and Chinese (-32%) tourist markets.
While South Korea remains a key source for visitor arrivals to the Philippines, a 19% slide is a concern for the tourism industry. Arrival numbers have fallen after robbery and kidnapping incidents at the start of 2025, which were followed by a Travel Warning issued by the South Korean Embassy in Manila.
There has, however been a
- 28.5% increase in tourist arrivals of Filipino’s who live overseas
- 19% increase in Japanese Visitors
- 19% increase in visitors from Australia
- 18.64% increase from Canadian Tourists, and an
- 8% increase from UK Tourists
A slight increase has also been seen for Indian tourist arrivals after visa requirements were adjusted to enable them to visit the Philippines without a visa, for up to 14 days. That said the numbers of Indian visitor arrivals is down by 41% when compared to the arrival numbers in 2019.
The Business Mirror reported on dissatisfaction among some of the participants regarding the forum, and their expected marketing role in supporting the Department of Tourism to meet the goals of the NTDP.
See Also The Business Mirror
AirAsia Wins World’s Best Low-Cost Airline 2025
AirAsia has been crowned the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline in 2025 in the SKYTRAX World Airline Awards. This is the 16th consecutive year that AirAsia has championed the title.
Other notable Philippine winners in the World Airline Awards include:-
- Cebu Pacific 9th Place in World’s Best Long Haul Low-Cost Airline
- Mactan-Cebu International Airport – voted 7th Most Improved Airport 2025.
- Cebu Pacific voted 10th World’s Most Improved Airline
Ralph Allen Santos wins Diageo World Class PH Bartender of the Year
Ralph Allen Santos, “Dean of Spiritual Arts” at The Spirit Library, was recently declared The Diageo World Class Bartender of the Year Philippines.
Santos saw off seventy-five other bartenders from across the Philippines, to win the title after competing in online and live challenges.
“This has to be the most incredible moment of my career. Winning Diageo World Class Philippines, the one competition I’ve always dreamed of, is something I’ll carry with me forever. This is the one that truly matters to me, the one I’ve poured my heart into, and the one that I love the most.”
Santos will now go on to compete against 55 other Bartender of the Year country winners, in the Global Finals. The finals are set to take place in September, in Toronto Canada.
If you would like to know more about The Diageo World Class Bartender of the Year Competition, check out Drink Collectives full article
Palawan Beach announced Asia’s Best Beach
Entalula Beach, El Nido has been announced as the No.1 Beach in Asia in the World’s 50 Best Beaches 2025, and 2nd Best Beach in the World. Cala Goloritze, Italy took the No1. Best Beach in the World spot.
Entalula Beach is described as a secluded beach known for its powdery white sand, crystal-clear turquoise waters, and limestone cliffs. The beach is less crowded than other popular spots in El Nido with excellent snorkeling conditions.
The criteria for consideration and awarding is as follows:
- Unique: The surrounding landscape of this beach makes it very unique.
- Wildlife: You are likely to encounter incredible wildlife at this beach or in the water.
- Untouched: This beach is very far off the beaten path and is in a pristine state.
- Soundtrack of Nature: At this beach, the only thing you will hear are the sounds of the ocean and nature.
- Easy to Enter: The water at this beach is very easy to enter, with calm waters and a sandy bottom.
- Often Calm Water: The ocean at this beach is usually very calm, making it easy to relax in the water.
- Not Too Crowded: This beach is never too crowded, making it very peaceful.
- Frequently Idyllic: Your odds of perfect beach days are much higher than average at this beach.
Global Industry News Updates:
Quake Prediction hits Japan’s tourism arrivals
Social Media has been awash with posts and shared articles this week, linking Japan’s alleged falling visitor numbers to a quake prediction found in Manga Novel The Future I Saw.
Manga author, Ryo Tatsuki’s ‘dream diary’, published in 1999, is said to have accurately predicted the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
The Manga novel was republished in 2021 with fresh content, sparking speculation about an early July 2025 earthquake and a tsunami, with its epicenter in Taiwan.
While scientists and the Japanese Government dismiss the prediction as baseless and lacking in scientific evidence, the Japanese Earthquake Task Force has recently raised the estimated probability of a “megaquake” occurring within the next 30 years to just under 80%.
However, various claims on social media – that the novel’s prediction has resulted in a sharp drop in tourist arrivals to Japan – may just be poetic license with an intent to drive engagement.
The Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) announced on June 18 that they are expecting tourism arrival numbers to reach a record-breaking 40 million mark by the end of the year.
The JNTO did acknowledge that there had been an 11% drop in visitors arriving from Hong Kong in May 2025, but this was against the 43% increase in HK arrivals seen in April 2025. There has also been an 11% increase in arrivals from South Korea.
DoorDash Launches Drone Delivery Service
DoorDash has announced the launch of its flagship drone delivery service in Dallas-Fort Worth, USA.
Customers in the area can now order food to be delivered by drone from dozens of local independent and chain restaurants. The drones are provided by Flytrex and can transport food deliveries that weigh 6.6lbs or less – about the weight of a large pizza.
Spanish accommodation scrutiny turns to Booking.com
Spain has expanded its scrutiny to Booking.com and, this week, demanded the OTA remove 4,000 Spanish rentals from its platform.
In an earlier Industry News Update back in May, we reported on Spain’s demand that Airbnb unlist 65,000 ‘illegal’ short-term rentals from its platform, amidst a housing affordability crisis in the country’s tourist hotspots.
Booking.com has since received a similar demand from Spain’s Consumer Rights Ministry, and promptly responded with the removal of 4,093 short-term rental listings. The majority of these were properties located in the Canary Islands which did not have valid licenses or permits for operation.
Booking.com’s European Woes Continue
The Dutch Consumers’ Association and the Consumers’ Competition Claims Foundation (CCC) are the latest to launch legal proceedings against Booking.com – this time on behalf of consumers.
They are claiming that Booking.com have been using unfair practices, which may have affected millions of consumers, dating back to 2013.
They accuse Booking.com of:-
- Price manipulation – misleading customers with fake discounts and incomplete prices.
- Over-inflating hotel prices
- Misleading customers – with false urgency messages and pop-ups (“there is 1 room left at this price” etc)
- Unfair competition – preventing hotels from offering better deals direct to the customer, or via other travel agencies and OTA’s.
We’ve previously covered the co-ordinated legal offensive being mounted by Hotel Associations from more than 25 European countries. They aim to restore pricing autonomy and recover damages from Booking’s long-standing dominance.
Booking.com denies the latest allegations and responded, in writing:
“We have always fought to provide the best possible prices and transparent booking experience to travelers and strongly contest any allegations to the contrary.”
Source: Euroweekly News
