Tourism to launch new Philippine brand

The Department of Tourism will launch in January a short and catchy slogan to replace the “Wow, Philippines” brand, a top official said.Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez said the new Philippine brand produced by world-renowned Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BBDO) will touch people’s heart and mind.

Eight advertising companies competed in the P13-million campaign that is supposed to replace former Secretary Richard Gordon's "Wow, Philippines."Jimenez said the new brand campaign is expected to raise Philippines tourism output to new heights.

Secretary Alberto A. Lim, Gordon's successor, once initiated the change of the slogan into "Pilipinas, Kay Ganda", which drew strong public flak. It failed because it was not impressive and had a strong similarity with that of Europe’s Poland brand.

The DOT also said Philippine tourism performed better than expected in 2011 despite the devastating typhoons, lingering effects of the hostage-taking of Hong Kong tourists and warnings of different embassies claiming the country is not a safe place to visit.Add to these the initiation of the draft of the country’s branding that drew strong negative criticisms and the replacement of the Tourism secretary.

Despite all these, Jimenez said tourist arrival to the Philippines from January to October increased by 11.96 percent or 3,185,866 compared to the 2,845,573 in 2010 within the same period.July produced the biggest arrivals with 360,784 while February posted the highest tourism growth at 18.52 percent or 318,902.

The East Asian region recorded 1,511,389 visitors, which is higher over the 2010 volume of 1,283,965 arrivals with China, Korea and Japan accounting for 1,511,389 arrivals.The North American region sent over 604,226 this year compared to the 270,409 of 2010.

The agency also said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) region is the third biggest contributor producing 270,409 arrivals, accounting for 8.49 percent of the total inbound traffic.

Arrivals from the Asean region grew by 14.85 percent against the arrivals of 156,617 in 2010.The fourth biggest source by region was Australasia and Pacific with 179,874 arrivals for a share of 5.65 percent.

Arrivals from Northern Europe with an aggregate of 129,346 (4.6 percent) comprised the fifth biggest contributor of arrivals versus the 117,182 output of 2010.The top 12 countries include South Korea, USA, Japan, China, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, United Kingdom, Malaysia and Germany.

Jimenez also expressed optimism for tourism in 2012. He mentioned Boracay, Puerto Princesa, Baguio and the many beautiful beaches in the Philippines as attraction to local and foreign travelers.

"By next year, we expect to bring in 3.2 million tourists, and hopefully more because of the global Asian Development Bank Conference here, which could pull in more than 4,000 delegates in April," Jimenez said.

Source - sunstar.com.ph