Through this partnership, the organisations involved seek to boost the country’s data-driven destination marketing.

The DOT and Mastercard signed off at a ceremony held at the former’s main office in Makati City.

According to tourism secretary Christina Frasco, the partnership will open opportunities for joint promotions whilst strengthening the agency's digitisation initiatives.

Frasco said: “On the side of the DOT, the data that Mastercard will be able to provide us and vice versa will ensure that both our policies as well as programs will always be data driven, as well as driven by the needs of people on the ground.”

The DOT earlier zeroed in on the possibility of partnering with Mastercard to tap into the latter's global analytics capabilities and boost smart tourism in the country.

Frasco pointed out that, as a global platform, Mastercard’s wealth of experience in terms of transactions related to the tourism industry is something that her agency hopes to harness as a way of boosting the Philippine tourist experience.

For his part, Mastercard senior vice-president and head of integrated marketing and communications in Southeast Asia Dheeraj Raina remarked how his company sees a positive trend in Philippine tourism, especially with the upcoming direct flight between Manila and New Delhi.

Raina said: “The Philippines offers a very unique, diverse and new experience, so we are quite bullish, actually, that this will grow and the numbers will only go up in the second half of the year, and, of course, in 2026.”

Mastercard already features Filipino destinations in its global consumer platform Priceless which casts the  spotlight on bookable experiences in various Philippine provinces.

These priceless experiences are reserved only for Mastercard cardholders.