CSF CLINCHES Asia’s Leading Cultural City Destination 2026.
Thus, the Department of Tourism-Region 3 press released, proudly congratulating City of San Fernando, Pampanga, for being named Asia’s Leading Cultural City Destination 2026 at the World Travel Awards.
“After bagging the First Runner Up title last year, the City of San Fernando rose to the top this year, besting Beijing, Delhi, Hue, Kyoto, and Seoul,” the DOT-3 PR said.
While it did not say the criteria for the selection, DOT-3 said it nominated the award “recognizing San Fernando’s strong tourism potential and rich cultural heritage.”
Indeed, no mean feat for CSF, the capital of Pampanga, beating the capitals of China and Korea, the massive megacity where lies, New Delhi, the capital of India, the once imperial capital of Vietnam, and the very cultural heart, once capital and imperial residence of Japan.
Mind-boggling to say the least. Indubitably, the brightest gem in the wealth of awards the CSF has so far amassed, since Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag took the throne at city hall. Our sincere congratulations.
Travel and tourism primarily moving in numbers though, we could not help but look up at those generated by the also-rans to the CSF win.
In 2025, Beijing received 5.48 million inbound tourists, and in the first five months of 2026, the city received 2.67 million inbound visitor trips, said a story in Beijing Evening News.
According to tourism.gov.in, Delhi recorded 3.22 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2025.
Hue recorded 6.3 million total tourist arrivals in 2025, and approximately 5.82 million visitors during the first eight months of 2026, according to Cong thong tin dien thanh pho…
Japan Today reported Kyoto welcomed a record 62.79 million tourists in 2025.
Seoul welcomed a record 11.56 million foreign tourists from January through August 2026, marking a 21.6% increase compared to 9.51 million during the same period in 2025, said the Korea JoongAng Daily.
Meanwhile, a Google click citing www.foi.gov.ph. read: “Official tourist arrival figures for the City of San Fernando, Pampanga for 2025–2026 have not yet been publicly released or finalized by the Department of Tourism or the City Tourism and Investment Promotions Office.”
A PNA story though said the Philippines recorded 6,484,060 total inbound international arrivals (5,940,975 foreign visitors and 543,085 returning overseas Filipinos) in 2025, and reached 4.42 million visitor arrivals between January and August 2026. How much of that Philippine total was contributed by CSF is anyone’s guess.
Clearly, tourist arrival was never a criterion in the WTA selection for leading cultural city destination. Which makes the award really astounding.