Historical Development of Tourism Activities in Philippines

Philippines is an island country located in the southeast of Asia. In terms of settlement geography, it has been under political and cultural domination of India, China, Spain and the USA, respectively. Due to observed tropical climate, the country’s temperature ranges in between 25 °C and 32°C throughout year, which is quite appropriate for tourism activities. Summer period (suitable time for swimming), known as Tag-init or Tag-araw, starts in October and come to end in April. This is also the timeframe when tourist visits reach the peak. Philippines is a tourism destination, which has a lot of natural and human-effected attractive places; such as turquoise coasts (Boracay, Camiguin, Palawan, etc.), chocolate hills in Bohol, rice terraces in Bunaue (on the UNESCO World Heritage List) and Corregidor Island (a protected war museum). The country equips with most of the “attractive items” which are necessary supply sources for development of tourism activities in a country. However, it welcomed about 6 million tourists in 2016, which is quite low in comparison to total tourism potential of the country. This study, therefore, examines historical development of tourism activities in Philippines, and that it also tries to identify space-related problems of tourism activities