National branding

The government is set to unveil an “enhanced” tourism slogan in a few weeks, in line with a national tourism development plan for 2023 to 2028 that has been approved by President Marcos, who reportedly wants to transform the country into a “tourism powerhouse.”

I guess every new administration feels it has to have its own tourism program. We already have Republic Act 9593, the Tourism Act of 2009, which recognizes the tourism and travel industry as a key engine of growth, and provides detailed proposals for making the sector achieve its full potential.

This is the long title of RA 9593: “An act declaring a national policy for tourism as an engine of investment, employment, growth and national development, and strengthening the Department of Tourism and its attached agencies to effectively and efficiently implement that policy, and appropriating funds therefor.”

But because it was someone else’s baby – notably former tourism chief and ex-senator Richard Gordon – implementation of RA 9593 has been spotty.

As tourism chief, Gordon had conceived the “WOW Philippines” tourism slogan in 2002, at no cost to taxpayers. This was replaced in 2012 with “It’s more fun in the Philippines” during the presidency of Benigno Aquino III, whose rollout cost about P5 million.

This time, the Department of Tourism (DOT) has given a hint of what the “enhanced” or rebranded tourism campaign slogan will be, saying it will incorporate some of the elements of the “national branding” campaign initiated late last year by the office of presidential adviser on creative communications Paul Soriano.

Meanwhile, the new tourism program includes the provision of free internet access in 94 tourism sites, in provinces including Palawan, Aklan and Cebu and in Baguio City, ostensibly to encourage vloggers to give positive reviews.

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Let’s hope the internet connection will be seamless. Free internet promised in certain public areas in Metro Manila has been a disaster. Otherwise, instead of encouraging visits to the sites, bad WiFi would have the same impact on tourism as the state of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

And let’s hope the vloggers will be genuine tourists raving about a great travel experience, rather than paid reviewers on hiatus from last year’s election campaign trolling and disinformation operations. Netizens can easily spot insincere reviews.

Selling a country’s tourism attractions is challenging enough. National branding is tougher.

National branding was the explanation initially given for that wraparound ad seen on a bus in London in time for the recent coronation of King Charles III. Featuring May Parsons, the UK-based Filipina nurse who became the first person in the world to administer the first peer-vetted COVID shot, the ad declared in part: “We give the world our best. The Philippines.”

Amid confusion (as amplified by Sen. Nancy Binay) over the messaging – was the ad selling Philippine nurses, or the country as a travel destination? – the Department of Tourism clarified that the ad was the handiwork not of the DOT but of Paul Soriano’s office.

His designation, incidentally, is supposed to be a one-peso-a-year position created under Marcos 2.0, but obviously his office has a budget of much more than P1 a year.

Gordon has a sanguine take on the ad in London. He doesn’t find it offensive and he thinks it can promote medical tourism in the Philippines.

Matec Villanueva, director of marketing and communications at Ateneo de Manila University, also does not find the ad offensive. But she shares Binay’s confusion over the messaging.

“I don’t know kung ano’ng ibinibenta,” Villanueva told “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News. “What’s the message? What is it selling?”

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A cardinal rule of advertising, she told us, is that the product being sold must be clearly identified within five seconds. There’s no room for creative interpretation; absorption of the message must be as effortless as possible.

Both Villanueva and Gordon, however, agree that what’s worse than the question – what’s it selling? – is selling a bad product.

“The fastest way to kill a bad product is to advertise it,” Villanueva told us. “Do we have a good product? I don’t think so.”

She explained that the country has great travel destinations and Filipinos are unique in terms of hospitality and service.

“But we’ve not scratched the surface of our potential,” she said.

Gordon told “The Chiefs” that tourists “must be pampered” from the airport to the hotel and across the gamut of services catering to the travel industry. Unfortunately, the country gets failing marks starting at the airport.

Weak air connectivity, whether domestic or international, is another disincentive. The country has yet to lure back all those direct flights to foreign capitals that were scrapped after international airlines pulled out of the Philippines in protest over the common carriers tax.

A foreign visitor can lose nearly a day of his precious vacation just waiting at the NAIA for a connecting flight to his final destination in the Philippines.

A number of these tourism sites are truly world-class in terms of natural appeal. But while considering the transport hurdles in reaching these destinations, a prospective foreign traveler may come across reviews complaining about the lack of toilets and healthcare facilities, and discriminatory pricing favoring locals.

The country, Gordon says, needs a “culture of tourism” that sees the industry as an engine of growth, with everyone on board and policies tailored and coordinated toward this end.

I’ve seen this culture in countries such as Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and now South Korea. Many of the European countries have this culture.

In this digital age, governments need not even allocate a massive budget for tourism marketing, if the product is great.

“The best marketing is a great tourism experience and the best advertising is word of mouth,” Villanueva said. “You deliver as promised.”