Tourism Marketing
Philippines welcomes the Tourism Promotions Board
Early April will see a complete overhaul of marketing strategies for tourism in the Philipines. Two bodies were, until today, in charge of the Philippines tourism destiny - the DoT (Department of Tourism), which handled both the functions of a ministry and of a development state agency, and the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corporation (PCVC). The Philippine Convention & Visitors Corporation is an emulation of the DoT and is in charge of promoting tourism through marketing campaigns, as well as attracting and handling travelers in the country. The chairman for the PCVC was the secretary of tourism, with a CEO being appointed by the board composed mainly of members from the DoT, as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs, the governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines, and the president of Philippine Airlines.
Last year, outgoing Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo enacted the Philippines “Tourism Act 2009,” paving the way to a complete reshuffle of tourism bodies. The new structure emulates mostly Thailand’s model - the new Philippine Tourism Promotions Board (PTPB) will be a powerful official tourism agency in charge of promotion and marketing just like the TAT in Thailand, while the Department of Tourism will continue to provide directives to the archipelago’s tourism development as an equivalent to a ministry. The previous Philippine Conventions and Visitors Corporation is integrated into the PTPB with former Bureaus for Domestic and International Tourism Promotions and the DoT Office of Tourism Information being absorbed into the new entity. The Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) is hereby reorganized as the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA).
The Philippine President appoints, by mid-March, five private sector board members for a three-year term. Among the nominees are Felix Cruz (Board of Airline Representatives) for the department overlooking Land, Sea and Air Transport; Cesar Cruz (currently at the head of the Philippines Tour Operators Association Philtoa) for travel and tours; Rose Libongco (Hotel Sales and Marketing Association) for accommodation; Dexter Deyto (PACEOS) for MICE; and finally Marceline Clemente for other tourism enterprises. They will be joined by five permanent representatives from different government agencies. A COO was elected on March 25 with the current DoT undersecretary for sports, tourism, and wellness, with Cynthia Carreon taking over the destiny of the agency for a six-year term. Promotional funds will now be transferred from the DoT to the PTPB while the PCVC will be dissolved. Long-time serving PCVC head, Daniel Corpuz, is due to retirment on June 30. PTPB's role will be to accelerate tourism development of the country, which still remains far behind the Philippines' neighbors.
Official data for 2009 points to total arrivals of 5.2 million foreign and local tourists in 2009 for the country’ major destinations (approximately 3.3 million estimated foreign travelers) far behind Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore with over 10 million foreign travelers a year, or Indonesia with over 6.5 million travelers.
Comments
Wow Philippines! It has come to its rude awakening. Glad it is working as well on its brand identity, and harder marketing efforts with PTPB as the frontliner.I agree with David Beirman, let's not get envious with our neighbors' green lawn..let's work on making our "own lawn " greener and beautifully landscaped!
Boracay beach is a place to die for, the only thing that holds me is the ever increasing airfare, I hope the department of tourism will keep adding new promos to help us go back there more often....
The Philippines makes an outstanding place to take a vacation. There is so much more for your dollar. The hardest part of the trip is air travel. With over $2 Billion a year coming in to the Philippines it needs to make careful moves to attract more tourist. One of the hardest areas of transiting in and out of the Philippines is the airports. Standing in long lines and carrying luggage around puts wear and tear on the tourist before they even hit the city. An idea passed from other countries is to have an assistant available (working for tips) that have the ability to transverse the airport areas and help tourist. Discussion forum at http://www.philippinetravelguides.com
The changes in the Philippines appear positive. Having been involved in the WOW Philippines campaign which was launched in 2003 it is certainly time for changes in structure and marketing approach.
While tourism numbers to the Philippines may appear a lot smaller that countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, there is no need to get too worried about that. Some of the arrival numbers claimed for SE Asian countries are inflated by the large numbers of people who arrive on short term excursions which require them to cross a land border.
This is sosmething which geography prevents in the Philippines. Its more productive to focus on growth targets of international tourism arrivals campared to the previous years in the Philippines and qualitative targets such as length of stay and per capita spend than worry about how the arrival numbers compare to neighboring countries.
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