Philippines seeks more tourists with new campaign

The Philippines has hundreds of tropical beaches, some of the world's best dive sites, ancient rice terraces and a unique culture that mixes Asian, Spanish and American influences.

So it has plenty to offer potential tourists.Yet, when compared with other countries in the region such as Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, it only gets a fraction of the visitors.

The official tourism figures for 2011 came in at 3.9 million. That is a definite improvement on previous years, but still nothing like the almost 20 million who visited Thailand during the same period.

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There wasn't as wide an acceptance for our last campaign as we would have wanted, so we decided to abort”

Benito Bengzon

Philiipines touriSm department

The government has made it clear that promoting tourism is one of its key priorities, and to do this it has launched a new campaign with the slogan: "It's more fun in the Philippines."

The aim is to compete with the region's more established tourism catchphrases, such as "Amazing Thailand", "Malaysia Truly Asia" and "Incredible India", by promoting something for which Filipinos are famous - their fun-loving spirit.

"This is our core strength - making sure our visitors have a fun and enjoyable stay," says a cheerful tourism department spokesman Benito Bengzon.

"It's not manufactured, it's not staged. It's something that comes naturally to us and I believe that gives us a competitive edge."

Source - bbc.co.uk