By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo / Special to the BusinessMirror
BE tourism ambassadors.
That’s what Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo told Filipinos living in the United Kingdom, an appeal to help boost visitor arrivals in the Philippines.
Teo is in London to attend the World Travel Market 2016, one of the biggest travel and trade shows in the world, ongoing until November 9 (November 10 in the Philippines). She made the appeal to Filipinos in the UK at the breakfast forum “Kapihan sa Pasuguan” hosted by the Philippines Deputy Chief of Mission Ambassador Gilbert Asuque last Sunday at the Philippine Embassy in London. Filipino civic leaders and UK-based Filipino media practitioners attended the breakfast forum.
“Many of your British colleagues, employers, friends and extended families have come to know more about the friendly and hospitable Filipino people, and the beauty of our country through your good representation here,” the DOT chief was quoted in an agency news statement from London. “You could be our tourism frontliners, especially through word-of-mouth promotions and responsible use of social media,” she added.
Teo directed the Department of Tourism (DOT) London office to launch a “special tourism-promotion program, which will maximize the strong network of influence of our overseas Filipinos in UK.” There are over 200,000 Filipinos living and working in the UK.
The DOT is projecting a 15-percent increase in visitor arrivals from the UK this year, or about 178,000, and a 15-percent to 20-percent growth in 2017. In 2015 some 155,000 visitors from the UK arrived in the Philippines.
During the open forum, the DOT secretary, likewise, assured that the new tourism slogan, which launched during the Miss Universe 2016 beauty pageant in January 2017, will be “better than the present one.”
The “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” brand campaign and slogan was created by the DOT in cooperation with the advertising firm BBDO Guerrero/Proximity and has been widely recognized and awarded by many award-giving bodies in the advertising and marketing industries. Just in September, for instance, BBDO’s campaign received the Creative Effectiveness Spike at the 2016 Spikes Asia held in Suntec Singapore. It is one of only three awards given in this category.
The award recognized the sustained success of the tourism campaign—driving increased tourism arrivals and revenues for the country. Apart from proving more effective than previous Philippine tourism campaigns, it also exceeded regional and global benchmarks for growth.
This recent award is on top of the other awards, including the Appies, the Asian Marketing Effectiveness and the Asia-Pacific Tambuli Awards. It also won the WARC Asia Strategy Grand Prix and was named The World’s Smartest Campaign—No. 1 in Asia and No. 3 in the world.
In a separate news statement, David Guerrero, creative chairman of BBDO Guerrero, said of the Spikes award: “Effectiveness is at the core of what we do. So we are thrilled with this recognition. We aim to deliver long-term creative platforms that provide for profitable growth for our clients.”
Meanwhile, the breakfast forum at the Philippine Embassy in London was also attended by Philippine lawmakers. Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez of Leyte, suggested an improvement in tourism packaging, “and making the tourism experience memorable to make them want to come back again and again.”
For her part, Sen. Nancy Binay stressed that tourism stakeholders should also address safety and security concerns by being vigilant to address such incidents, instead of just leaving these issues to be dealt with by the police and the military.
Part of the star-rating system by the DOT of Philippine hotels, resorts and other accommodations includes an emphasis on providing adequate security to their respective properties and the guests.