There has been a lot of word-of-mouth and mentions in social networking site

about Its 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 peoples 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 Its 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.

Objectives
To attract 10 million tourist by the end of 2016.(short- term)
To narrow the gap in comparison between Philippines and Vietnam.
(short-term)
To increase the number of tourist visiting in the Philippines.(longterm)
To be included in the top 10 tourist destination in Asia.(long term)

V.

Areas of Consideration
STRENGTHS
Filipino People
Tourist destination
Foods
WEAKNESSES
Accommodation
Safety and Security Issue
Weak transportation and infrastructure
OPPORTUNITIES
Capitalize on the Philippines globally attractive tourism assets and
proximity to large Asian growth markets.
Capitalize on the governments convergence strategies for socio
economic development and poverty reduction.
Leverage participation in international tourism cooperation
initiatives.
THREATS
Competition
Natural Disaster
Internal and external conflicts
Financial economic crisis
Climate change

VI.

Alternative Courses of Action

a. Promotional advertisement / Social Media Advertising
b. Promo packages
c. Maintain natural wonders of the Philippines
d. Build new facilities/building for tourist accommodation.
e. Improve transportation infrastructure.
f. Offer new activities.
g. Make it cheaper to visit the Philippines.

Advantages
Social media sites are great for building customer relationship and offers an

incredible reach and the opportunity to connect with customers in an entirely

new way

Offers a wide reach, with its potential for viral marketing

Traffic generated can be extremely targeted

Social media tools are relatively inexpensive

By making the cost of visiting the Philippines a lot cheaper, we can attract
more potential tourists in the country.

Disadvantages
Targeting is so low because of the diversity and breadth of audiences,

resulting in low ROI as visitors do not convert

Visitors mainly go to social media sites to socialize, and are not interested in

advertising
Traffic is typically in the learning stage of the buying process; hence it is more

important to inform and teach than sell outright

Social media can be a hard branding tool for small businesses, and it is not

easy to build awareness, create appeal and generate traffic

VII.

Recommendation

 Department of Tourism must develop more promotional ads for

television, radio and to spread it to social networking site. They
should encourage fellow Filipinos to get more involve to Its more
fun in the Philippines campaign.
VIII.

Conclusion/Active Plan
To become one of the top tourist destinations in the world, we have
to maintain and develop our natural wonders and man-made
structures. The government should give their full support to ensure
that they will achieve the target goals.