THE year of the Water Tiger will be challenging for the Department of Tourism (DOT) with its promotions and marketing budget reduced to a level the Philippines’ Asian neighbors spend just each month. This doesn’t bode well for the country, now that it has reopened to vaccinated foreign tourists from visa-free countries.
In a news briefing on Monday, DOT Assistant Secretary for Branding and Marketing Communications Howard Lance Uyking said this year’s branding campaign budget of the agency has been cut to P309 million from P1 billion in 2019. “We never stopped promoting the country even during the pandemic. Now we are going to focus our promotions to welcome foreign tourists coming from the visa-free roster of countries.” But with the cut in DOT’s branding budget this year, he admitted, “We are still recalibrating how much we will be alloting for international promotions.”
In 2020, the budget for DOT’s promotions was reduced P560 million, as all government agencies had to turn over their resources for the first Bayanihan Fund to address the Covid-19 problem in the country. This was further cut to P468 million in 2021.
During last year’s deliberations on DOT’s budget for 2022, Senator Imee Marcos questioned why the agency spent P1.5 billion for an international branding campaign when the country remained closed to foreign tourists. She and Senator Richard “Wow Philippines!” Gordon, who chairs the Senate Finance sub-committee, are believed to be primarily behind the cut in the DOT’s total budget to just P2.74 billion from the agency’s proposed P3.52 billion budget for 2022.
The DOT is expected to rely on its marketing arm, the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), whose budget remains intact this year. (See, “Tourism Promotions Board gets P1.7 billion to push PHL,” in the BusinessMirror, January 17, 2022.) Uyking separately told the BusinessMirror, “We’re always coordinating with the TPB and our foreign offices to make sure whatever we have is maximized and not redundant.”
He added, “The real gameplay is targeted digital marketing since we are to focus on the visa-free key and emerging markets only.” During the news briefing, Uyking unveiled the DOT’s social media campaign this year including ASMR videos of key tourism designations; the creation of various playlists of original Pilipino music on Spotify; and the launch of a podcast series where stakeholders talk about their experiences in leisure spots.
The DOT has also partnered with Google “so every information and content we encode on our website will be reflected on Google Travel,” he added. This will involve the travel of video content creators all over the country to gather information from local stakeholders about their destinations and the activities therein.
By March, the DOT will also launch its “7,641” microsite containing all information about tourism circuits across the country. The agency will also be creating new shows promoting farm tourism and culinary tourism.
Preparing for reopening
In the same news briefing, TPB COO Ma. Anthonette C. Velasco-Allones said, “Our outlook for tourism industry in 2022 is quite optimistic for us given that the first major global MICE (meetings incentives conventions exhibitions) summit will happen in the Philippines,” referring to the World Travel and Tourism Global Summit on April 20-22.
The Philippines has also given organizers of the Clipper Race, a competition among sports yacht enthusiasts, a Special Event Permit, as the racers depart Subic Bay in April. “Our MICE team is in talks with several professional associations such as medical groups, wellness groups…a number of professional and corporate events have already been calendared,” she added.
Among the key TPB banner programs this year are Halal Tourism, assistance to native weavers (Habi), and wellness (Hilom). “The [DOT] Secretary has instructed that we need to step up our promotion of our health and wellness tourism because a lot of people really come to the Philippines for dental treatments and aesthetics,” said Velasco-Allones.
The TPB also helped validate 79 tourism circuits across the country, as part of government’s preparation for reopening to foreign tourists. These tourism circuits were developed by the DOT in partnership with local government units and local stakeholders, which show the destinations and activities that travelers can engage in during their visits. Velasco-Allones expressed confidence, “They are more than ready to receive visitors.”