Manila City Mayor Francisco “Isko” Moreno Domagoso led the opening ceremony of the city’s first-ever tourism expo, “My Manila Tourism Expo 2026,” at Foro de Intramuros.
The three-day expo, running until September 27 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, marks the official launch of “Manila, My Manila,” the City of Manila’s new tourism campaign, drawing more than 12,000 registered attendees, with free admission for the public.
Explaining the spirit behind the new campaign, Domagoso said Manila is a city of contradictions, where gleaming modern towers rise just blocks from centuries-old stone walls, and where both continue to shape what it means to be a Manileño.
“We may have modern buildings, but we also have beautiful buildings tested by time,” the mayor said, referring to Intramuros as the site of the country’s first established civilization.
He cited a range of local heroes, from Rajah Sulayman and Andres Bonifacio to Asiong Salonga and Victor Lopez Jr., as proof of the diverse stories found across the city.
“Sa bawat eskinita at boulevard, laging may kasaysayan at nakaraan.”
“Manila has a lot of stories to tell. Sa bawat sulok nito, may kwento. Sa bawat eskinita at boulevard, laging may kasaysayan at nakaraan,” Domagoso said.
Manila City Tourism Officer Cristal Bagatsing, director of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Arts of Manila (DTCAM), which organized the expo, said the campaign is meant to shift how the city wants to be seen.
“Our vision is simple: we want to transform Manila from a city people have to visit into a city people want to experience,” Bagatsing said.
The campaign’s tagline captures that same idea: “There isn’t just one Manila. There’s your Manila, My Manila,” reflecting the press kit’s framing that no two people experience the capital the same way, whether through its history, food, nightlife, faith, art, business, or simply as home.
The expo organizes Manila’s tourism offerings into eleven experience themes, including My Heritage, My Flavor, My Creativity, My Night, My Journey, My Family, My Passion, My Business, My Health, My Future, and My Adventure, bringing together heritage institutions, hotels, restaurants, businesses, and creative communities under one roof.
The three-day program also included a Barangay Tourism Seminar for different districts each day, MidFest mini concerts and gala shows, FDCP film showings, a Manila City Band mini concert, and the MIDAS Awards, culminating in an awarding ceremony for the expo and a closing ceremony last September 27.
In an ambush interview after the program, Domagoso said the expo is expected to directly benefit Manileños through job creation tied to tourism.
“Tourism creates a lot of jobs. For every tourist, I don’t know the exact mathematics of it, but every tourist creates at least one or two jobs. So the more tourists, whether domestic or foreign, going to Manila, it creates more jobs for the people of Manila,” the mayor said.
He added that the city has posted double-digit growth in business registrations over the past year despite broader economic challenges.
“Modesty aside, the city of Manila enjoys double-digit growth in spite of the economic situation for the past year; that is already a fact. Our businesses rose double digits in terms of registration, minimizing mortality in the city,” Domagoso said.
He said the campaign, whose name draws from National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin’s “Manila, My Manila,” is meant to signal that the city belongs to everyone, not just Manileños.
“Where Manila goes, the country follows.”
“Because our Manila is your Manila. It’s everyone’s Manila; it’s the Filipino’s Manila, because again, where Manila goes, the country follows,” Domagoso stressed.
The city government is encouraging residents, visitors, students, and workers to post their own Manila experiences on social media using the hashtags #ManilaMyManila and #MyManilaTourismExpo2026, tagging the official @ManilaMyManila pages.
