BY VINCE SOCCO
I think that the newly minted slogan of the Department of Tourism (DOT) to promote the Philippines is a good one. But, of course, there will be 110 million opinions about it by as many Filipinos in our beautiful country. There isn’t really much to dislike about the slogan. It’s short, easy to recall, offers wide applications, it has a high emotional appeal and it captures the Filipino spirit of being a fun and loving people. But that’s just me. I suppose that the DOT and its partner agency did a lot more research and testing on the slogan before finalizing its choice.
But what’s in a slogan? Other countries in the region have adopted their own tourism campaign lines that, over time, have stuck - Amazing Thailand; Incredible India; Malaysia Truly Asia; Wonderful Indonesia; Singapore: Passion Made Possible; and Vietnam Timeless Charm. Our own “It’s more fun in the Philippines” held its own and I am reasonably hopeful that “Love the Philippines” will make its own mark.
Ultimately, a slogan is only one of several items in any country’s tool kit to increase the flow of foreign tourists to its shores. I think it would be entirely unfair to rest the success of tourism on a campaign line. Yes, it contributes to entice visitors but that is only part of the whole dynamic. But, for the sake of comparison, let’s look at how the numbers fall using campaign slogans as a baseline.
From 2002-2010, the Philippine slogan was “WOW Philippines”. The number of visitor arrivals to the country increased from 1.9 million in 2002 to 3.0 million in 2009. This was followed by “Pilipinas kay Ganda” from 2010-2012 which showed the tourist count rise to 3.5 million in 2010 up to 4.3 million in 2012. Then came “It’s more fun in the Philippines” from 2012 thru the first half of this year. Visitor arrivals grew to 8.2 million just before COVID slammed the brakes on tourism.
If my math does not fail me, the average annual growth rates were 7.9%, 7.1% and 9.6% for “WOW Philippines”, “Pilipinas kay Ganda” and “It’s more fun in the Philippines”, respectively. Simplistically, it would be tempting to say that it was the last slogan that had the most impact. Perhaps, it was a big contributor. Nonetheless, we cannot discount other factors like the general social and economic environment, geopolitical events and local peace and order conditions. It will be recalled, for example, that the period of 2012-2019 was a period of robust economic growth and political stability for our country. This was almost certainly a driver of increased tourist arrivals.
Post COVID, tourism is yet to get its mojo back. 2023 has so far been very encouraging for tourism in the Philippines. For the first six months, a total of 2.7 million visitor arrivals have been reported by the DOT. This is already more than the reported number of tourists for the whole of 2022.
However, if we take the helicopter view, our prospects for increased visitor arrivals to the Philippines still has a long way to go. Our ASEAN neighbors are, in fact, far ahead of us in tourist count – regardless the slogan. One report compares our peak count of 8.2 million visitors in 2019 to 39.9 million in Thailand, 19.1 million in Singapore, 18 million in Vietnam and 16.1 million in Indonesia. The struggle to return tourist arrivals to pre-COVID levels continues. Thailand is at around 45% recovery while Singapore and Indonesia are around 30%+, the Philippines at about 25% and Vietnam at 20%. With the practically full cessation of COVID travel restrictions, we hope that the “revenge travel” phenomenon starts to spike sooner than later.
While the buzz has been focused so much on the slogan, I think we ought to take this opportunity to shore up the challenges that get in the way of raising the desirability of the Philippines as a tourist destination. It is not for any shortage of sights or attractions, to be sure. It is more about providing a more seamless and convenient way around to, well, make tourists fall in love with the Philippines. Many pundits have pointed out the need to improve our airports, connectivity across the nation, safeguarding of tourist interests while in-country and a more secure experience altogether. Surely, there are those that prefer the more laid-back experience but the basics remain the same. The opportunities from a more robust tourism sector are definitely worth paying attention to.
Let’s give “Love the Philippines” a chance to showcase the many charms of our country – not only to increase visitor arrivals but also to raise domestic tourism among Filipinos. We have 7,641 islands to explore and, yes, to love.
