Philippines: Tourism Department and GCash Team Up to Take Small Tourism Firms Cashless
The Philippines’ Department of Tourism (DOT) has signed a deal with GCash, the country’s largest e-wallet, to help accredited tourism businesses accept digital payments. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) targets small hotels, homestays, tour operators and souvenir sellers, and includes onboarding, merchant tools and money-skills training.
Key facts
- The DOT and G-Xchange, Inc. (GXI), the company that runs GCash, signed the MOU on 3 November 2026.
- It covers DOT-accredited micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and other tourism businesses across the country.
- Merchants can sign up for GCash SoundPay, SoundPay Plus, PocketPay and EasyPOS with only a verified GCash account.
- The aim includes letting local businesses accept more ways to pay, including supported foreign-issued cards.
- Tourism added more than ₱2.27 trillion (Philippine pesos) to the economy in 2025, or 8.1% of GDP, and supported 7.7 million jobs, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Who does what
The agreement is a framework rather than a funded programme, and it splits the work between the two sides. The DOT will share tourist arrival data and its lists of accredited businesses so GCash can reach out to them and verify merchants. That sharing is subject to the Philippines’ data privacy laws. The department will also invite GCash to its events and trade fairs, work through its regional offices, and promote merchant sign-ups under its Love the Philippines and Discover More to Love tourism campaigns.
GCash, for its part, will run co-branded campaigns, make onboarding simpler for accredited MSMEs, and offer merchant incentives and ready-made payment “toolkits” for key tourist spots. It will also run financial literacy sessions for small business owners and share data on how the campaigns perform and how consumers spend. Both sides will work on tourism product projects that support local artisans and creative businesses.
Tourism Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay said visitors already want to pay digitally, and that accredited businesses need to be ready for them. Paul Albano, general manager of GCash for Business, said the tie-up links small local sellers with both domestic and international travellers.
Why it matters
Much of Philippine tourism runs on small operators: family-run resorts, boat and tour guides, food stalls and craft shops, often far from Manila. Many still rely on cash. That is a problem for visitors who carry little local currency and expect to tap a card or scan a QR code, and it means small sellers can lose sales.
The tools in the deal are aimed at that gap. A soundbox, such as SoundPay, is a small speaker that reads out each QR payment as it arrives, so a busy vendor does not have to check a phone. PocketPay and EasyPOS are lighter point-of-sale options for taking payments on the spot. Because sign-up only needs a verified GCash account, the barrier for a tiny business is low.
The mention of foreign-issued cards is the part most relevant for the region. It suggests GCash wants accredited merchants to serve international tourists, not just Filipinos paying with the GCash app. For GCash, a stronger merchant network in tourist areas also gives its own users more places to pay and builds the transaction history that feeds its lending business.
The deal follows other DOT payment tie-ups with card networks, and it fits a wider push by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank, to make most retail payments digital. Across Southeast Asia, governments are using tourism as a test case for cashless acceptance, because visitors arrive with phones and cards ready to use.
What to watch
- How many accredited tourism businesses actually sign up, and in which provinces, once GCash starts sharing campaign results.
- Which foreign cards and wallets the onboarded merchants will accept in practice, and at what fees.
- Whether the DOT strikes similar deals with Maya and other e-wallets, giving small merchants a choice of providers.
Related: ASEAN’s cross-border QR payments hit a record · Inside Malaysia’s e-wallet war
Sources: Daily Guardian (November 2026) · Mindanao Times (November 2026) · Manila Bulletin (November 2026) · Unbox PH (November 2026)
