Department of Tourism Philippines
The website began in March 2002 and was updated by the Department of Tourism Philippines.
The function of the site was to provide information on the Philippines, how to travel to the Philippines, where in the Philippines to explore, and about the site administrator’s partnerships.
Philippines Tourist Information
The front page offered a featured destination like the Ifugao Rice Terraces. It also showed featured articles concerning news about the Philippines. You could also choose specific tourist destinations like most popular destinations, beaches, dive spots, and World Heritage sites in the Philippines.
You could also see package tours and the time, date, and weather in major cities like Manila, Baguio, Cebu, Laoag, and Boracay. The latest exchange rate between the US Dollar and the Philippine peso. There was also a trivia section.
About the Philippines
If you wanted to know more about the Philippines and the Department of Tourism, you could go to this page.
There were many sub-pages to help you learn more, such as:
- Message from the Secretary
- Mission, History, and Functions
- Key Officials
- Directory of Offices
- DOT Flagship Projects
- DOT Press Releases
- Investments
- Travel Advisory
- Links
- Message Boards
- Contact Us
- Calendar of Events
The mission of the Department of Tourism was created in the 1950s to promote, encourage, and develop tourism in the Philippines to boost foreign currency and employment for Philippine citizens.
Some of the offices in the Department of Tourism included Financial Management Services, Domestic Tourism Promotion, Office of Tourism Information, and the Office of Tourism Development Planning.
How to Get to the Philippines
The Getting There page offered the international and domestic flight times and distances from major airport cities around the world. So, if you wanted to fly to the Philippines, this was a great place to start as they kept updates on flight times and how many kilometres away it was from the starting destination. You could find out flight times from Los Angeles, Singapore, Honolulu, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and more.
Where to Go in the Philippines
For those that wanted more detailed information on the tourist spots in the Philippines, the Department of Tourism offered a HUB & SPOKE tourism approach since the Philippines are a collection of archipelagic islands that formed one nation.
So, the major hubs and a list of the spokes that extended from these hubs in the Philippines were:
- Manila
- Cebu
- Laoag or Baguio
- Clark or Subic
- Davao
- Others
One could choose a major hub and the spokes would display.
Philippines Hotels, Resorts, Tour Guides, and Transportation
The site listed many partnerships with the Department of Tourism Philippines such as:
- Hotels
- Restaurants
- Transportation
- Resorts
- Travel Agencies
- Tour Guides
- DOT
You could find these hotels and other sites for Manila, Laguna, Bicol, Palawan, Subic, and more.
They also listed PTAA (Philippine Travel Agencies’ Association)-operated hotels such as the Hundred Islands National Park, Club Intramuros, and Banaue Hotel and Youth Hostel. These travel professionals worked tirelessly to bring their guests the best in destination lodging for Philippines.
The site ended sometime after 2012.
