It’s more FUN in the Philippines

There has been a lot of word-of-mouth and mentions in social networking site
about “It’s more FUN in the Philippines”, the new Slogan of the Department of Tourism
(DOT) in 2012 which replaced the long-running slogan, “WOW Philippines”. Observers
notes, however whether Filipinos, who posted their own efforts or ideas for the slogan in
their Faceboook and twitter, communicated the right audience as the DOT attempted
to make a viral people’s campaign that aimed to bring travellers from other countries to
the Philippines.

With market potential off 1 billion tourists spending US$1 trillion worldwide, a small
increase in tourist numbers would greatly benefit the Philippines as it has not attracted as
many foreign tourists, with market shares of less than half of the one percent. This is when
even with the consideration of the many natural wonders that the Philippines has versus
the manmade structures in the other countries. The additional source of revenues could
complement other major sources of foreign receipts like exports with reported values of
over US$51 billion and of OFW remittances nearly US$20 billion in 2010.

The top ten tourism destinations of the world as of 2011 included two Asian
countries: France, USA, China, Spain, Italy, UK, Turkey, Germany, Malaysia and Mexico.
Some 204 million tourists visited the Asia-Pacific region in 2010, and the top ten places
were: China (56 million) , Malaysia(25 million), Hongkong (20 million), Thailand (16 million),
Macau (12 million), Singapore (9 million), South Korea (8.8 million), Japan(8.6 million),
Indonesia (7 million) and Australia (6 million). The Philippines has not been in the top ten
it has improved to attracting around 3.7 million foreign tourists in 2011, each staying an
average of nine days and spending an average of US$100 a day (or US$900 per tourist).
The DOT aims to attract 10 million tourists by end-2016, to narrow the gap in comparisons
between Pg Philippines and Vietnam (which is already getting 5 million visitors a year). In
March of 20122, it was reported that the Philippines has reached its highest ever tourist
visits in a month, reaching 400, 000, suggesting the success of the “It’s more FUN in the
Philippines” campaign and other local tourism initiatives.

Observing the behaviour of tourists, it was noted that some of them have either
come from another country or are going to another country after visiting the Philippines.
An idea then is to consider the potential of dual-country visits among tourists. This means
the DOT will consider the possibility of re-positioning the Philippines as a second of two
destinations tourists must visit, like after visiting china, Singapore, Malaysia or Hongkong,
they also visit the Philippines. A bundling strategy done consistently and, when creatively
executed and supported by Philippine embassies in each country, may even, in less than
2 years leapfrog the Philippines several ranks higher than its neighbouring countries that
have chosen to promote tourism alone.
I. Time Context
 Year 2012

II. View point

 Department of Tourism (DOT) – The executive department of the
Philippine Government responsible for the regulation of the Philippine
tourism industry and the promotion of the Philippines as a tourist
destination.

III. Problem Statement

 Even with the great effort of the Department of Tourism to promote
tourism, they still failed to attract half of the target percentage of foreign
tourists.

IV. Areas of Consideration

V. ACA (Alternative Courses of Actions)