Naturally beautiful Philippines sells itself

The Undersecretary and Assistant Secretary from the Philippines Department of Tourism (DoT) are in Australia this week to actively target the Australian market, hosting, with Philippines Airlines, Australian east coast roadshows. "You can expect some aggressive marketing from DoT," DoT Undersecretary Vicente Romano told reporters yesterday.

Mr Romano, who prior to his appointment with DoT was Head of the New Media Bureau of President Benigno Aquino's election campaign which boasted strong success using social media platforms, has big plans to promote the Philippines globally. "I'm looking beyond just Facebook and Twitter," he told e-Travel Blackboard. "[Among other plans,] I've got a social networking game in mind."

Despite "unquestionable natural beauty", the Philippines has experienced a blow to its tourism numbers following a recent hostage crisis which resulted in the death of eight Hong Kong tourists. Mr Romano did not ignore the incident, saying that "lessons were learned".

Taking notice of the lagging tourism figures, DoT aims to step up its marketing strategies, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim proposing P476 million to be allotted for international tourism promotion at this week's hearing of the appropriations committee, the Inquirer reported. DoT Assistant Secretary Benito 'Bong' Bengzon told eTravel Blackboard that DoT were "being creative with the use of our budget", adding they will be tactically targeting key demographics and promoting particular destinations across the Philippines.

At last night's Destination Philippines Roadshow in Sydney, Mr Romano wove a link between Australia and the Philippines, telling travel agents that General Douglas MacArthur spoke his famous "I will return" on the shores of Adelaide in reference to the Philippines. "What is it about the Philippines that made MacArthur want to return? "It's the beautiful destinations, the beautiful people, the ease by which to get there."

While DoT could offer no comment on suggestions that the Philippines was one of the last in line of south east Asian travel trend destinations and thus likely to benefit from 'Bali-fatigued' Aussie travellers, agents at the roadshow were ready to share their experiences. "I get clients who want the typical tropical holiday but are not wanting to deal with a heap of Aussies on a beach - they want something new," one agent told e-Travel Blackboard.

"And it's not just the young ones.

"My older clients want to go there because it's so easy to travel around; everyone there speaks English." "Over the past years we've had steady increases of Australians travelling to the Philippines," DoT Tourism Attache to Australia and the Philippines Consuelo Jones said. "We saw an 8.9 per cent increase last year and then an 11 per cent growth from January to May this year."

Partnering with big wholesalers has not hurt the growth either, Ms Jones said. "Now we've got the bigger players, more will be interested," she added, giving props to Philippine Airlines for "aggressively" helping the cause. The Philippines had 132,000 Australians travel to its shores in 2009 while in the year to May 2010, they already welcomed 58,880 Australian travellers.

Sourced=etravelblackboard