Hooray! In case you missed the good news, the Philippines is once again in the popular lists, proving why it is one of the world’s best vacation destinations.
The country recently made it to the Condé Nast Traveler's 40 Most Beautiful Countries in the World and the 10 Places That Deserve More Travelers by National Geographic. What’s more, Boracay and Palawan made it once again in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2017 Top 25 Best Island Beaches for Swimming and Snorkeling.
The 40 Most Beautiful Countries in the World
Luxury and lifestyle travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler recently released a list of the 40 most beautiful countries in the world. The list is based on the World Economic Forum’s Home Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 and personal picks of the magazine’s editors. Every year, the foundation conducts a survey of the travel and tourism competitiveness of 136 countries. These factors include safety and security, infrastructure, tourist service, and natural and cultural resources, among many other things.
The Philippines, with an overall score of 3.6 (with 7 as the highest), ranked 79th in this year’s report, with a total of 5,360,682 international tourist arrivals and tourism inbound receipts amounting to US $5,276.3 million. It is worth to note that the country’s price competitiveness and natural resources were ranked 22nd (with a score of 5.5) and 37th (with a score of score 4), respectively.
For further details of the country’s performance, please see the screenshot below:
Source: World Economic Forum
The magazine cited Palawan and Boracay as their readers’ faves in 2016. These islands never fail to impress. Palawan’s Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park, Bohol’s Chocolate Hills, and the Rice Terraces in the Cordilleras, were mentioned as some of the spots that made the country beautiful.
For the full list of 40 Most Beautiful Countries in the World, please click here.
10 Places That Deserve More Travelers
The Philippines also made in the 10 Places That Deserve More Travelers by National Geographic. The magazine said that despite US travel warnings and terrorist attacks, the country “remains no less safe for travelers than many other destinations worldwide, and the country—so economically reliant on tourist trade—needs visitors.” Some of the recommended spots are the country’s white sand beaches and “two-thousand-year-old rice terraces–UNESCO World Heritage sites each violently blindingly, green.” Other UNESCO World Heritage sites in the country include the historic town of Vigan in Ilocos Sur, Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park in the middle of the Sulu Sea, Basilica Minore del Santo Niño and Magellan’s Cross in Cebu, Lazi Church in Siquijor, and the historic campus of the Silliman University in Dumaguete, among others.
Here’s the full list of 10 Places That Deserve More Travelers:
- Lesotho
- Egypt
- Mongolia
- Turkey
- The Philippines
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Arctic Alaska
- Kyrgyzstan
- Moldova
Top 25 Best Island Beaches for Swimming and Snorkeling
Boracay and Palawan are in another popular list again. After besting USA’s Hilton Head Island in South Carolina and Maui in Hawaii, Greece’s Santorini, and Indonesia’s Bali, the islands respectively made it to the 5th and 3rd spots in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2017 Top 25 Best Island Beaches for Swimming and Snorkeling. The magazine cited Boracay as an “excellent place to snorkel from its gently-sloping sandbar.”
In Palawan, Luli Island, Starfish Island, Panden Island, and Cowrie Island were mentioned as the top snorkeling spots. Meanwhile, Maldives made it to the no. 1 spot. To review the full list, click here.
Since we are talking about snorkeling, you may also want to check these spots:
- Matinloc Island in El Nido, Palawan
- Apo Island in Dauin, Negros Oriental
- Nalusuan Island in Cordova, Cebu
- Tubod Marine Sanctuary in Siquijor
These are just some of the reasons why you should visit the Philippines. If you still need more to be convinced, you can do your own research or better yet, ask those who have visited the country about their experience.
So what are you waiting for? It’s more fun is this archipelago of 7,641 islands!
0 Comments