This is Asia’s leading beach and dive destination

The Philippines has achieved three nods in the 27th World Travel Awards, including winning Asia's leading beach destination, dive destination and tourist board for 2020. In the beach destination category, it triumphed over five other nominees – India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

These are the best beaches in the Philippines

The Philippines also took the leading beach destination awards in 2013, 2016 and 2018. Its triumph hardly comes as a surprise, as with over 7000 islands to choose from, there's an island to suit every taste, including sun-worshippers, adventure-lovers, water sports enthusiasts and divers. It has myriad gems like Boracay's 5km signature White Beach, the 3km Nacpan Beach situated north of El Nido, which is perfect for swimming, and the fabulous beaches around the dramatic limestone formations of the Bacuit Archipelago.

In the category of Asia's Leading Dive Destination 2020, the Philippines was crowned the winner over Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. It is home to some of the best scuba diving in the world, thanks to its coral reefs and enormous schools of fish. Visitors to Malapascua Island, which is home to Bounty Beach, can get up close and personal with thresher sharks, and the diving town of Moalboal offers the rare chance to swim just offshore with giant schools of sardines.

A young woman snorkeling underwater looks at a large whale shark in the Philippines — Diving and snorkeling are popular activities in the Philippines © soft_light/Shutterstock

The Philippines has also been nominated in the world's leading beach destination, dive destination, island destination and tourist board categories, and will find out its fate in these categories at the final of the World Travel Awards on November 27 in Moscow. The awards acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the global travel and tourism industry, and further information on the winners can be found on its website here.