New Tourism Slogan: It's More Fun in the Philippines

New tourism slogan: It's more fun in the Philippines

The Department of Tourism (DOT) has unveiled its new slogan to encourage foreign travelers to visit the Philippines. The new slogan—
"It's more fun in the Philippines"—appears simple and sleek but there's a catch. In its newly-launched website, http://itsmorefuninthephilippines.com, It showed "commuting" as traveling by boat, "posting status updates" while underwater, and going up the "stairs," or the world renowned Banawe Rice Terraces in Ifugao. It is not only the places and destinations that were showcase in the Philippines but most of all the people who were living in the Philippines.

The new tourism line is not a manufactured line; it's drawn from the way Filipinos have touched the lives of tourists. In its presentation, the Department of Tourism said it plans to attract 4.1 million foreign and domestic tourists next year and earn P1.2 billion from tourism-related industries. Hopefully, the increase in arrivals would generate jobs for 4.4 million Filipinos. DOT Philippines said the government will also be competitive in getting new tourists through extended visas. Starting this year, no [more] 21-day visas. If competition has 30-day visas that's what they will offer. They'll give visa on arrival starting 2012. They will also encourage everyone to put together very competitive packages. FUN is not just excitement, but prices as well. On a strategic and practical level, the tourism secretary also stressed that the slogan is focused on achieving results for a country long perceived to be underachieving in tourism. The Philippines receives 3 million international tourists annually, paling in comparison to Thailand's 15 million. Jimenez hopes that the country can attract 12 million tourists annually by 2016. With a limited and relatively paltry budget, the Philippine tourism department hopes to tap social media, an Internet savvy population, and more than 10 million Filipinos working abroad, to drive and extend the impact of its campaign. It is the most unusual campaign in Philippine history since it has been planned to be a people's campaign and make every Filipino participate. Going viral is part of the strategy because (social networking) is where the Filipino people are dominant and we have to use this tremendous power in the Web. The use of social networking would also enable the government, particularly the DOT, to save its resources for other campaigns to lure foreign tourists.

The new DOT slogan "It's more fun in the Philippines" has been received with little more than a disinterested yawn, as DOT sec Jimenez is forced to admit that the tagline is hardly unique, magical or original, and may in fact have been plagiarised from a Swiss campaign. It also drew mixed reaction from the public. In social media, some commented on its simplicity or lack of impact, but generally the feedback was positive.

Conclusion:

For me, its not the slogans or even how beautiful our country is.
Its how the people, particularly the Government handle its business. Slogans are great for marketing but if our entire tourism service & support infrastructure is still not that good, we can’t be successful in this field. The government should focus also in the reconstruction of infrastructure here in our country especially the airport and terminals. Last December I’ve been to Boracay, a place where a lot of tourists go, and I noticed that the airport there is so old and not look so good, especially the comfort rooms. If the government really want the tourist to come to our country, then they must improve the appearance of the place. I also noticed that the slogan got a lot of bad feedback from Filipino people. Why don't we give it a chance? We've only seen a photo of the slogan. Yes, the effectiveness of the words are important, but so is the execution of the actual campaign that will follow later on. We Filipinos should help this campaign to success. We should support it rather than criticizing it. For me the slogan may be long, but it speaks for itself.