The Philippine Embassy in Seoul reported to the Department that its Office of the Tourism Attaché, led by Ms. Maricon Ebron, garnered three major awards at the 6th Korean Tour Expo, held at the Daegu Exhibition Center, Daegu, South Korea in April 2008.

The Best Design Award went to the Philippine Pavilion, plus the Best Folklore Performance Award and the Best Booth Operation Award at the Tour Expo.

The Philippine booth stood out among the 250 competitors because of its unique design: a larger-than-life red and yellow jeepney complete with colorful furnishings, which was placed against a backdrop of two wall panels illustrated with Boracay's stretch of white sand and blue waters, and the breathtaking Banaue Rice Terraces. Four Filipino hip-hop artists further attracted visitors with their twice daily performances at the main stage.

The 6th Korean Tour Expo, one of the most important travel expositions in Korea gathered over 120 national tourism organizations and other travel-related establishments from Korea and around the world.

The Korean travel market has become the Philippines' biggest contributor of visitor arrivals, supplying a total of 126,354 tourists for the first two months of 2008. This figure represents 22.1 percent share of over-all foreign tourist traffic.