Hospitality Industry News Updates brought to you by MY RANGGO Hospitality Magazine for the week ending 1 August 2025.
Our Tourism & Hospitality Industry News Headlines:-
- President Marcos SONA Directs Tourism Infrastructure Projects
- DOT announces 2nd Tourism Champions Challenge
- Top 10 Historical Museum Set To Reopen
- 123Compare.me Report highlights Rate Undercutting by OTA’s.
- 8 More Filipino Crewman Held by Houthi Rebels
- AmexGBT Gets Green Light to Merge with CWT
President Marcos SONA directs tourism infrastructure projects
President Ferdinand R Marcos, Jnr delivered his 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the House of Representatives, Quezon City on 28 July 2025. His address highlighted:-
- Internal tourism as an expanding market. Tourism spending by Filipinos in 2024 was 13.12% higher, at ₱3.86 trillion, than 2023 figures and surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels.
- Tourism provides 13.83% of the country’s total employment, with 6.75 million workers, plus more than 10 million more people benefitting from the industry through indirect employment.
- A directive to implement infrastructure projects to improve the tourist experience, with examples like the construction of 100 additional Tourist Rest Areas in strategic locations. These will provide free-of-charge facilities such as clean restrooms, comfortable lounges, charging stations, and tourist information desks.
- The need to reduce the impact of climate change. This comes after several regions were impacted by a series of weather fronts, cyclones and typhoons which have caused flooding, landslides, destruction of tourism sites and facilities, and over one thousand tourists being left ‘stranded’.
The President also acknowledged the role of departmental programs the Filipino Brand of Service Excellence (FBSE) and Tourism Industry Skills Program (TISP) which have collectively trained more than 358,000 people in the tourism workforce.
Department Of Tourism (DOT) Secretary, Christina Garcia Frasco issued a statement, following the SONA, highlighting the work the department is undertaking with other governmental agencies:-
- Ensuring social protection for tourism frontliners during calamities (Department of Social Welfare and Development)
- Turismo Asenso loans for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in tourism
(Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Small Business Corporation (SBCorp) - The introduction of the Balik Bayani sa Turismo program (Department of Migrant Workers (DMW)) aimed at reintegrating returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) into the tourism workforce.
DOT announces 2nd Tourism Champions Challenge
The Department of Tourism launched its 2nd cycle of the Tourism Champions Challenge (TCC) on Thursday 31st July.
The TCC is a nationwide infrastructure proposal competition which aims to strengthen the tourism sector via infrastructure investment and grassroots development, and empower LGU’s.
The competition is in partnership with the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), and up to 21 LGU’s across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will be selected to receive funding for tourism infrastructure Projects.
15 projects were selected in the first round of the Tourism Champions Challenge in 2024, five from Luzon, five from Visayas, and five from Mindanao.
See the DOT’s announcement for more details
Top 10 Historical Museum Set To Reopen
Museo Sugbo, one of the Philippines Top 10 historical museums, is set to reopen at the end of August after a two year closure.
The museum is located in the former Cárcel de Cebú – later renamed the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) – and was built in 1872. It was designed by architect Domingo de Escondrillas.
The museum boasts memorabilia throughout its 14 galleries, covering the Pre-Colonial Era, the Spanish Period, the American Colonial Era, and the Post-War Period.
Museo Sugbo first opened to the public in August 2008. It will reopen on 28 August 2025 after being closed for 2 years.
RANGGO App In Ermita, Manila
The RANGGO App will be hitting Ermita, Manila during the month of August and signing up local bars, restaurants and hotels.
Conceived as a Coalition Loyalty App (plus plus) for the Hospitality, Tourism and Services Industry, RANGGO isn’t just a tech solution — it’s a strategic business tool aimed at helping:
- Boost repeat business
- Encourage higher spending
- Improve customer experience & Service Standards
- Generate actionable customer insights
- Build a supportive business community
To learn more visit The RANGGO Revolution
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Global Hospitality Industry News Updates
123Compare.me Report highlights Rate Undercutting by OTA’s.
123Compare.me recently released its June World Parity Monitor Report. The report highlights OTA platforms owned by Booking Holdings’ have been undercutting the direct rates of hotels and accommodation providers.
Booking.com, Priceline and Agoda have all been classified by 123Compare.me as “Disruptive Intermediaries: Main Drivers of Parity Loss”
The report summary describes the “Disruptive” title as “intermediaries [that] show strong and consistent signs of aggressive behavior in the market. Their pricing activity is highly visible and often unpredictable — making them especially problematic for hotels aiming to protect their direct channel.”
The Summary also includes basic coverage of the data collected in the report:
- Agoda (Booking Holdings): Over 10,000 cases as the cheapest channel, with 39.8% Lowest and 1,684 unique disparities. High volume and aggressive.
- Priceline (Booking Holdings): 3,891 cases as Lowest, including 651 unique ones. Consistent pattern in competitive contexts.
- Booking.com: More than 22,000 total disparities. Lower %Lowest (7.38%) but often involved in price wars — with an average of 3.85 OTAs matching the same lowest rate.
- Expedia and Hotels.com (Expedia Group): Over 100,000 disparities detected. Their %Lowest is relatively low (2.96%), but their worldwide presence and high traffic levels mean they still appear frequently — making continuous monitoring essential.
Followers of our Facebook account may remember the OTA Survey we undertook a couple of weeks ago.
We launched the survey after learning from a number of hotels that one particular OTA was regularly confirming bookings with rates well below both the Base Rate set in a Channel Manager, and the minimum room price set directly in its own extranet.
The survey unfortunately only ran for two days, so we did not achieve a significant enough pool of responders to determine if this was an issue that needed to be passed to the Philippine Department of Tourism or Department of Trade and Industry.
MY RANGGO OTA Survey Results:
One Makati hotel owner explained that despite the hotel being 95% full one month, with most of the bookings coming from the same OTA, the booked rate was so low they were not earning enough to cover running costs. He added that all promo’s and deals had been removed or turned off but the low sale price continued despite numerous discussions with the OTA.
Another owner of a small boutique hotel on Boracay explained to MY RANGGO, that they were receiving a lot of bookings from the same OTA, all were lower than the Base Rate set and 95% were cancelled by the OTA later, just prior to guest arrival.
8 More Filipino Crewman Held by Houthi Rebels
Eight Filipino crewmen continue to be held by Houthi Rebels after their ship, the MV Eternity C, was attacked by drones and missiles on July 7.
The Filipino’s were picked up by the rebels, along with 3 other crew members. Video shows that the crew members are alive but remain in the custody of the rebels.
The ships location, at the time of the attack, was in the Red Sea on route to Israel. It is the second time that a commercial ship has been attacked and sunk by Houthi rebels. The day before 17 Filipinos on board the MV Magic Seas were rescued by a container ship after theirs was attacked. They have since returned to the Philippines.
In January of this year, President Ferdinand R Marcos Jnr aided the release of 17 Filipino crewman of M/V Galaxy Leader who had been held by Houthi Rebels since November 2023.
The Houthi are targeting merchant vessels belonging to, or associated, with companies doing business with Israeli Ports, regardless of the ships nationality or destination.
Amex GBT Gets Green Light to Merge with CWT
The business travel giant American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) has been given the greenlight to merge with struggling CWT, after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped its lawsuit.
The DOJ had initially brought a lawsuit against the planned merger, fearing that it would reduce competition and result in higher prices and fewer choices for business clients.
It is expected – if the merger does go ahead in the third quarter of this year – that Amex GBT will see $45.5 billion in sales.
Missed our Hospitality & Tourism Industry News Update for 19-25 July 2025? Read it here
