The Philippines Department of Tourism announced today that the Philippines is, once again, the World’s Leading Dive Destination at the World Travel Awards (WTA) 2021.

“This distinction is indeed a great privilege, yet, it underlines our great responsibility of protecting and conserving our underwater resources so that these will also be enjoyed and experienced in their pristine natural state by future generations,” said Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat.

This is the third consecutive year that the Philippines has won the said award. It bested other dive destinations in the world, such as Maldives, Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Azores Islands, Bora Bora in French Polynesia, Cayman Islands, Fiji, Galapagos Islands, and Mexico.

The country boasts of having the best diving destinations with biologically diverse marine and aquatic resources. The Philippines not only belongs to the magnificent Coral Triangle—dubbed as the Amazon of the Ocean that is home to 600 coral species, 2,000 reef fish species, and six out of the world’s seven species of marine turtles—but also, as marine scientists have pinpointed, is at the center of it, making the country home to the richest marine ecosystem on the planet.

Top diving spots in the country include the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park in Palawan, Anilao in Batangas, Malapascua and Moalboal in Cebu, Balicasag, Panglao, and Anda in Bohol, and Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro. The PDOT is constantly identifying potential destinations that may be developed for dive tourism.