At PHITEX 2026, industry leaders considered how travel can create richer experiences while supporting the people and communities that give destinations their character.
A protected coastline. A hotel that manages its waste and water responsibly. A meal prepared with ingredients grown nearby. These may be the more recognizable signs of sustainable tourism, but they’re only part of the picture. Sustainability also asks who earns from a journey, who has a say in how a destination develops, and whether tourism helps preserve the qualities that made a place worth visiting. These questions informed the Philippine Travel Exchange, or PHITEX 2026, held this September at Conrad Manila. Organized by the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Philippines, the country’s foremost government-organized travel trade event connected 74 international buyers with 102 Philippine sellers through business meetings and familiarization tours.
PHITEX was established in 1996 to connect Philippine tourism businesses with international markets. This year, it carried the theme Connecting Markets, Creating Opportunities: From Conversation to Collaboration Through Sustainable Tourism Partnerships.
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PHITEX 2026 Looks Beyond Arrivals
“Tourism growth cannot be measured solely by arrivals, revenues, or sales leads,” shared TPB Chief Operating Officer Marga Nograles during the opening ceremony.
Those measures remain essential to a growing tourism industry. In 2025, tourism directly contributed ₱2.27 trillion, or 8.1 percent, to the Philippine economy. Tourism industries also employed an estimated 7.70 million people, accounting for 15.7% of employment across the country, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The scale of that contribution gives greater weight to the question Nograles raised next: what does tourism growth mean for the people whose livelihoods depend on it?
Welcoming more travelers creates opportunities across accommodation, food, transportation, recreation, retail, and other services. Sustainable tourism considers how those opportunities can reach local enterprises and communities while protecting the natural and cultural assets on which the industry depends.
The concept is broader than environmental conservation alone. UN Tourism defines sustainable tourism through three connected responsibilities: using environmental resources responsibly, respecting the cultural identity of host communities, and maintaining viable long-term economic activity whose benefits are fairly distributed.
The People Who Give A Place Its Character
PHITEX 2026 highlighted areas such as diving, golf, wellness, culinary travel, sun and beach destinations, and English-language learning. Alongside these market segments, Nograles emphasized experiences created within communities and by the people who care for their destinations.
Technology increasingly influences where travelers go and what they do when they arrive. Social media introduces places to new audiences, while digital tools help tourism businesses understand changing interests and expectations. Yet neither can replace the knowledge held by the people who live there.
“It is still the Filipino who will welcome visitors with warmth and hospitality,” Nogales expressed. “It is the local guide who shares the stories behind a heritage site. It is the tourism entrepreneur who creates memorable experiences.”
PHITEX attempted to bring that firsthand knowledge into its program. Before its business meetings, participating buyers visited heritage sites in Manila. Post-event tours brought them to Ilocos, Palawan, Cebu and Bohol, and Davao, where they could encounter destinations and engage with local tourism stakeholders directly. The PHITEX website describes these tours as part of its wider objective of building interest in Philippine destinations and increasing tourist arrivals.
The meetings and tours do not, by themselves, establish that the resulting tourism will be sustainable. That depends on the partnerships, products, and practices developed afterward. But PHITEX offers a broader way to consider progress: not fewer visitors, but tourism growth designed to endure and to benefit the people who make each destination distinct.
For travelers, that may result in a journey with greater context—a meal connected to its region, a heritage site interpreted by someone who understands its history, or an experience that contributes to the livelihood of the community offering it.
Sustainable tourism, then, doesn’t ask us to stop exploring; it asks that the places we explore continue to thrive because we came.
Banner photo features Sohoton Cove in Surigao del Norte, all photos courtesy of the Tourism Promotion Board of the Philippines
Frequently Asked Questions
PHITEX 2026, or the Philippine Travel Exchange 2026, is the country’s foremost government-organized travel trade event. Organized by the Tourism Promotions Board Philippines, it connects international buyers with Philippine tourism sellers through business meetings and familiarization tours.
The theme of PHITEX 2026 was “Connecting Markets, Creating Opportunities: From Conversation to Collaboration Through Sustainable Tourism Partnerships.” It emphasized partnerships designed to create opportunities for Philippine tourism and local communities.
Sustainable tourism involves using environmental resources responsibly, respecting the cultural identity of host communities, and supporting viable long-term economic activity. It also considers how tourism benefits the people whose livelihoods depend on the industry.
In 2025, tourism directly contributed ₱2.27 trillion, or 8.1 percent, to the Philippine economy. Tourism industries employed an estimated 7.70 million people, accounting for 15.7 percent of employment nationwide.
Participating buyers visited heritage sites in Manila before the business meetings. Post-event familiarization tours brought them to Ilocos, Palawan, Cebu and Bohol, and Davao to encounter the destinations and engage with local tourism stakeholders.
