THE Philippines’s participation in the World Expo 2025 in Osaka is expected to enhance the country’s profile in Japan and expose it to a wider international audience, as it targets the arrival of 8.4 million foreign tourists next year. In a Viber message to the BusinessMirror, Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Chief Operating Officer Maria Margarita Montemayor Nograles, said, “About 28 million people are projected to visit the World Expo 2025.

So, the Philippines has the opportunity to boost not just arrivals from Japan, but encourage other nationalities to come to the Philippines, see our beautiful sights, and experience our legendary Filipino hospitality.” The TPB, the marketing arm of the Department of Tourism (DOT), recently unveiled the design for the Philippine Pavilion for the world expo in separate events in Manila and Osaka. The DOT sits as the Commissioner-General of the Philippine Organizing Committee (POC) for the world expo, with the TPB serving as the secretariat.

The World Expo 2025 Osaka will run from April 13 to October 13, 2025. Japan is a key tourism market for the Philippines. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, the Philippines received 682,788 Japanese tourists, who accounted for some 8.

3 percent of the 8.3 million total inbound travelers that year, a historic high. Of the 4.

87 million outbound Japanese travelers from January to May in 2024, the Philippines received just 158,461, data from the Japan Tourism Bureau (JTB) showed. This year, Japanese touris.