Launching in January this year, “It’s More Fun in the Phillipines” campaign is aimed to promote the country’s tourism globally. Among the first targets is Norway.
“An aggressive global campaign promoting fun and Filipino hospitality is set to tackle poor awareness of the Philippines’ offerings,” the Philippine Department of Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez said this week. Poor image and lack of awareness are considered the main obstacles to tourism growth in the Philippines, according to Mr. Jimenez.
“You can actually walk into a travel agency in Spain, the country that colonized the Philippines for 400 years, you will not find a single brochure on the Philippines,” said Mr. Jimenez.
“This lack of awareness stems from a number of factors, the most obvious being a modest budget, which although now at its highest in Philippine history is still ‘invisible’ when compared to competitors,” added Mr. Jimenez.
The Philippine Department of Tourism will actively promote the tourism campaign through advertisements, using billboards and posters, at airports across the world. Among the first targeted countries are New York, London and Norway.
So far the campaign has been well received and generated good response. According to the country’s tourism secretary, the first quarter’s results are on track to meet the Philippines’ target of 4.6 million international visitor arrivals.
“Within hours after the launch on social media, ‘It’s More Fun in the Phillipines’ became the number one trending item on Twitter while do-it-yourself ads bombarded Facebook,” CNN reported.
