Earlier this month, the Department of Tourism announced that they planned to introduce a new campaign slogan next year.
While Tourism chief Wanda Corazon Tulfo-Teo said it was “normal to change the tourism brand when a new administration takes over,” not everybody agreed.
“The DOT’s plan to change the Philippines’s tourism brand and campaign slogan was met with a barrage of negative reactions from tourism industry stakeholders,” reports Stella F. Arnaldo in BusinessMirror.
The report quoted Cesar Cruz, president of the Philippine Tour Operators Association (Philtoa), who told the BusinessMirror that the ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ brand and campaign slogan launched in 2012 “should not be changed yet.”
Cruz further pointed out: “It has not really reached its maximum potential,” Cruz pointed out.
He added, “I think the country slogan shouldn’t be changed every administration; it takes time for the brand or the campaign slogan to achieve its maximum potential. It’s only now that ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ has gained acceptability here and abroad. Maganda ang dating nya sa tourists.”
Aileen Clemente, executive vice president of the Tourism Congress of the Philippines, and Arthur M. Lopez, president of the Philippine Hotel Owners Association, both echoed Cruz’s view.
So, will the fun go on?
The report recalled: “The ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ marketing campaign was conceived by advertising agency BBDO Guerrero, and launched in January 2012 under then-Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr., who is an advertising veteran, as well. The initial conception for the slogan itself amounted to PHP5.6 million, but the subsequent media placements and advertising campaign have run into billions of pesos since its launch in 2012.”
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