The Philippine government announced that it is allocating around US$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.
At the same time, the DOT also opened the submission of proposals for the second cycle of the Tourism Champions Challenge (TCC), a programme 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 declared: “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 hoped that, through the continuation of the well-received programme, tourism development among local government units could be experienced even in the farthest reaches of the country.
The TCC is funded by the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), the developmental arm of the DOT.
In April, President Ferdinand R Marcos Jnr awarded nearly US$4.4 million in grants to 15 LGUs that submitted winning proposals.
In TCC’s first cycle, a total of 90 LGUs submitted at least 98 project proposals to the DOT.
