The Philippine government announced that it is allocating around $6.8 million in grants to fund tourism projects across 21 destinations nationwide.
The allocation was announced by the Department of Tourism (DOT) earlier today, 31st July.
Additionally, the DOT also opened the submission of proposals for the second cycle of the Tourism Champions Challenge (TCC), designed to empower local government units (LGUs) to propose and implement community-based tourism projects.
Empowering tourism development at the local government level
During a media briefing at the DOT headquarters in Makati City, tourism secretary Christina Frasco stated: “The TCC, in its first cycle, has managed to empower local government units from all over the Philippines to propose community-based tourism infrastructure projects that will provide livelihood to their community-based tourism organisations.”
Frasco expressed optimism that the program would foster tourism development in even the remote areas of the country.
The TCC is financed by the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), the developmental branch of the DOT.
Previously, in April, President Ferdinand R Marcos Jnr awarded nearly $4.4 million in grants to 15 LGUs that submitted winning proposals.
In the first cycle of the TCC, a total of 90 LGUs submitted 98 project proposals to the DOT.