‘Private sector input needed in tourism slogan tweak’

MANILA, Philippines — The private sector must be heard now that the Department of Tourism (DOT) is planning to “enhance” the slogan for Philippine tourism, according to an expert.

In crafting a new slogan for Philippine tourism, “stakeholders must be heard,” Philippine Hotel Owners’ Association executive director Benito Bengzon Jr. said in an interview with “The Chiefs” aired Cignal TV’s One News last Friday night.

“There has to be an honest-to-goodness consultation on whether this campaign should be retained, whether it should be revised or modified. So at the very least, there has to be a consultation,” Bengzon added.

The former tourism undersecretary pointed out that it is not only the DOT that is engaged in the tourism campaign, but the country’s entire tourism industry should be involved.

Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco earlier said the agency would “enhance” the current tourism slogan “It’s more fun in the Philippines,” but would be patterned from the “country brand” – “We give the world our best. The Philippines” – which was formulated by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Creative Communications.

Philippine tourism “goes beyond ‘fun,’” shown by what she called changing trends in tourism preferences by travelers wherein they would like to experience the culture and heritage of a tourist spot, according to Frasco.

She also gave assurance that the DOT would “take into consideration the opinion of our various stakeholders.”

Meanwhile, Rajah Travel Corp. owner Alejandra Clemente maintained that “It’s more fun in the Philippines,” which has been used since 2012, is doing well.

“We strongly feel that the branding or the campaign is working very well until now. It’s more fun in the Philippines,” Clemente also told “The Chiefs” last Friday night.

“In fact it has been adopted in so many materials of foreign travel agencies, in their brochures, to attract the markets in their areas,” she added.

Clemente stressed that travel clients from Europe are “very particular with slogans and campaigns.”

The travel firm owner challenged the DOT to come up with “something better than the existing one,” if the agency would push through with “changing again” the tourism brand, as she called it.

She also called out the DOT for what she considered as lack of effort in creating marketing and promotional materials to offer the Philippines to travelers, probably reflective of its limited budget for marketing, promotion and advertising.

“Even the materials now that are distributed by the (DOT) and the Tourism Promotions Board are not at par with other countries in the region. We, the private sector, participate in trade shows and we can see they’re very pathetic because we cannot really come up with beautiful materials,” Clemente said.

She added that the DOT is “not really getting the market” by joining travel fairs overseas “simply because we lack the materials,” particularly video materials. Travelers would get to know about Philippine tourist spots from the internet, through vloggers and influencers.