Tourism is an important sector for the Philippine economy. The travel and tourism industry contributed 8.9% to the country's GDP in 2024; this was lower than the 12.7% recorded in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Coastal tourism, encompassing beach and diving activities, constitutes 25% of the Philippines' tourism revenue, serving as its primary income source in the sector. Popular destinations among tourists include Boracay, Palawan, Cebu and Siargao. While the Philippines has encountered political and social challenges that have affected its tourism industry, the country has also taken steps to address these issues. Over the past years, there have been efforts to improve political stability, enhance security measures, and promote social inclusivity, all of which contribute to creating a more favorable environment for tourism, such as the Boracay rehabilitation.

As of 2024, 6.75 million Filipinos were employed in the tourism industry, it generated ₱760.5 billion (US$13.1 billion) in revenue from foreign tourists, coming mostly from South Korea, the United States and Japan. The country attracted a total of 5,360,682 foreign visitors in 2015 through its tourism campaign of It's More Fun in the Philippines! In 2019, foreign arrivals peaked at 8,260,913.

The country is also home to one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, and one of the New 7 Wonders Cities, the Heritage City of Vigan. It is also home to six UNESCO World Heritage Sites scattered in nine different locations, three UNESCO biosphere reserves, three UNESCO intangible cultural heritage, four UNESCO memory of the world documentary heritage, three UNESCO creative cities, two UNESCO World Heritage cities, seven Ramsar wetland sites, and 14 ASEAN Heritage Parks.

In 2011, the administration of President Noynoy Aquino through his Department of Tourism (DOT) recorded 3.9 million tourists visiting the country, 11.2% higher than the 3.5 million registered in 2010. Tourist arrivals jumped to 4.27 million in 2012, after the Aquino government launched a widely publicized tourism marketing campaign entitled "It's More Fun In the Philippines", which became an international success.

The 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum ranked the Philippines 79th out of 136 countries overall. The country's best-rated features were price competitiveness (22nd) and natural resources (37th).

The tourism industry employed 3.8 million Filipinos, or 10.2% of the nation's employment, in 2011.

The official heritage properties of the Philippines are listed under the National Government's Philippine Registry of Cultural Property (PRECUP), Pinagmulan: Enumeration from the Philippine Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS). Properties registered among those lists are heralded as possible nominations to the UNESCO World Heritage List, where at least 16 declarations containing 19 properties have been recognized by UNESCO through its four different lists (UNESCO World Heritage List, UNESCO Memory of the World Register, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Registry).

Tourism in the Philippines traces its origins during the ancient times when the first set of people chose to migrate through land bridges, followed by the other sets of migrations from the Malayan archipelago in the south and Taiwan in the north. Trade also became part of the tourism as Arabs, Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Malays, and other ethnic groups in mainland Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Ryukyu traded goods with the natives. When the islands became part of the territory of Spain, an influx of Spanish people migrated into the country, though still few compared to the Spanish migrations in South America as the Philippines was farther from Spain.^{[citation needed]}