Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 21) — Two of the country’s leading destinations — Intramuros and Cebu — were nominated at the 30th World Travel Awards (WTA), the Department of Tourism (DOT) announced Tuesday.

Cebu was nominated as Asia’s Leading Wedding Destination. Intramuros, after winning the same title in the WTA last year, was nominated anew for Asia’s Leading Tourist Attraction.

The country is running again this year for Asia’s Leading Dive Destination and Asia’s Leading Beach Destination titles — both awards bagged by the Philippines in 2022.

“These recurring nominations clearly manifest the growing global travel demand into the Philippines, one that we aim to sustain in the coming days through the initiatives we have laid out for the tourism industry’s recovery and transformation post pandemic,” Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said.

Last year was the first time for the country to be deemed the world’s leading beach spot while the fourth time as the world’s top dive haven. The DOT is also nominated as Asia’s Leading Tourism Board in this year’s WTA.

The WTA was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.

Voting for the 2023 WTA’s various categories (including Asia) officially started on Monday, Feb. 20 and will be open until midnight of March 19, 2023.

In December, the DOT reported that the country surpassed its initial target of 1.7 million tourist arrivals and welcomed 2.5 million tourists by the end of 2022. Of this number, 75% were foreign nationals, the DOT added.

READ: Tourist arrivals in PH hit 2.5M this year – DOT