The Department of Tourism (DOT) Regional Office of Eastern Visayas has expressed interest in hosting the next edition of the Philippine Dive Experience.
Launched in November 2024 in the southern Luzon province of Batangas, the Philippine Dive Experience aims to boost the country's diving industry and strengthen its position as one of Southeast Asia's leading dive destinations.
The event draws inspiration from DOT's flagship program The Philippine Experience, but incorporates heritage and conservation activities to present Philippine diving as a unique and purposeful experience. It is angled to
Southern delights at sea
In an interview on Wednesday, January 8, DOT Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes said the Eastern Visayas region offers a wide range of interesting sites for international divers to explore.
Foremost is Sogod Bay in Southern Leyte Province which offers 30 diving destinations that stretch from its coastal waters to Panaon and Limasawa Islands.
Sogod Bay is an undiscovered diver's paradise that offers world-class muck diving, macro photography diving and shore dives to coral reefs for night dives.
The bay is home to around 150 species of hard corals, hawksbills and a host of colorful fish species including green turtles, butterfly fish, groupers, sweetlips, rays, as well as nudibranchs, sea slugs, sharks and whale sharks.
getting ready
To prepare for the Philippines dive experience, Teops said they will plan activities for dive tours and start conversations among locals on the benefits of diving to the community and protecting the marine environment.
Tiopes suggested: “We can also do some things like coral restoration because we know their diving sites were affected by Typhoon Odette and they need our help to restore the damaged corals.”
Aside from showcasing the beauty of Sogod Bay, hosting the Philippine Dive Experience will help promote the region's culture and cuisine for tourists to understand and relate to the richness of Eastern Visayas heritage.
An opportunity for the hospitality sector
Tiopes is also hopeful that the Philippines will have the opportunity to encourage hotel and resort businesses hosting dive experiences to meet the needs of divers.
He said: “At the moment, our players in the diving industry in South Leigh have a limit in accepting guests due to the limited number of accommodation facilities. By hosting this event, we want to achieve an increase in dive facilities and accommodation facilities to meet the needs of the divers who come to visit us.”