Did you have any idea? I sure didn’t! I only found out about a week ago, or so, but I was very happy.
Oh, you don’t know what I’m talking about, right? Well, if you remember, last week, I wrote about the new “Immigration Superbody” and I talked about how it was very difficult for a foreign tourist to be able to book a trip to the Philippines, get his hotels and domestic travel all booked up and such. Well, while doing research for that article, I found out about something that really surprised me and gave me some hope for Philippine tourism!
The thing that I didn’t know is that National Geographic has included the Philippines as one of “The 25 best new trips for 2010.” Wow! National Geographic has clout, and is widely read, and having them say that the Philippines is one of the top 25 best new places to go this year is quite an honor, and it is also something that the Department of Tourism should capitalize on!
Now, the exact trip that the National Geographic is promoting is a trip up in Luzon, where people will trek from Banaue (the place where the famous Rice Terraces are located) down to the island of Calibao. While this is not the exact trip that I would choose to take, hey, we are all different. I am just so very happy to see the Philippines finally included in a list like this one in National Geographic.
In the National Geographic article, they point out that the Philippines has a big problem in tourism:
The Philippines has a PR problem. While it harbors as many islands as the Caribbean and some of the most spectacular reefs on the planet, the nation sees only a fraction of the visitors of nearby Thailand. Even travel companies, it seems, have bought the bad rap: Other than the occasional sea kayaking trip, U.S. guides have largely avoided the archipelago.
Yes, those words are direct from National Geographic. Some of the most spectacular reefs on the planet? I live in the Philippines and I didn’t even know that myself!
But, will the Department of Tourism capitalize on this? In my mind, it is doubtful, but I hope they do. How can they capitalize? Well, they need to immediately put together an advertising campaign to attract more visitors to the country. They need to get on the TV, on International stations, and run ads promoting travel to the country! Much like you see for Malaysia (Malaysia… truly Asia), India (Incredible India) and other countries are doing. The Philippines is mysteriously absent from such tourism promotion.
One of the big problems for tourism in the Philippines is that the country gets an undeserved, in my opinion, rap that the place is dangerous. “You’re gonna get kidnapped or killed if you go to the Philippines!” That’s just crazy. Do bad things happen to tourists here? Sure, from time to time they do. But, things like that happen in Thailand, Malaysia, India and even in the USA to tourists. The Philippine Department of Tourism needs to advertise and tell people that “Even National Geographic says that the Philippines is one of the top destinations for 2010!” Why not? There will be no better opportunity than having your country featured as one of the top destinations where people should travel this year!
Come on, Philippines, let’s make it happen. I personally have been promoting this country, and especially the island of Mindanao, on the Internet for more than a decade now. And, I know of a lot of peopel who have visited here, and even come here to live, due to my efforts to promote the country. Now is the perfect opportunity for the country to drop the attitude that it’s not as good as other tourist spots, and start promoting the place as a world class destination! Even National Geographic says that it is, after all!
But, it is also important to remember that it takes more an a TV commercial or two! Last week, I told you about the problems with booking a hotel room, or buying an airline ticket over the Internet. These things need to be fixed too! It can be done too. Frankly, it will cost a lot less for the country to get it’s tourism on the Internet than it will cost to run just one or two TV ads! It takes work, and it takes dedication, though. So far, the Department of Tourism has not shown an interest or an inclination to do the things needed to make the Philippines a tourism hot spot!
Let’s see if it can happen now that National Geographic is telling people to come and see what they are missing in the Philippines!
Yes Bob;
You are on the mark with this article, when Richard Gordon was Secretary of tourism he promoted WOW Philippines with many TV spots, all in the Philippines, on local TV only. It was explained to me, by my wife’s cousin (Asst. Director of the DNR) that it was because of a limited budget not short sightedness. He said it was frustrating as they all knew that you must spend money to generate money. (As with the places you noted.)
Every place I’ve visited here I found out about through word of mouth, vice proper advertising. Here on LIP I found out that Manila had a new Aquarium, thanks to John Miele’s post.
PadCor is building or has built a huge entrainment complex called E City or something like that, and I’ve searched their web site for info that’s not there yet. Yet the local TV ads say it is.
My other complaint (here on Luzon) are the poor road maps, if any, to get you to a place you found out about. I guess it keeps the local drivers employed as they seem to know the way. The country has so much to offer to any tourist, if they only knew about it, as you pointed out so well.
I meant PagCar not PadCor, (maybe that’s why I couldn’t find it. (LOL)
I got it wrong again PagCor!!! (wish I could shrink my fat fingers)
Hi Paul – I really think that this is an opportunity for the Philippines to turn a bad situation around. With a major outfit like NatGeo promoting the country, you have a good kick in the pants right there. A few pesos worth of advertising would lift things right off the ground!
Bob;
Let’s hope someone in the government is paying attention.
Hi Paul – Hope springs eternal!
I would say, Paul, as a bit of a counterpoint, that the age old ‘we don’t have funds’ excuse is not the only reason for the DoT’s “hood ornament” fixation.
As along-time government employee, I can testify that it just happens to be the most convenient excuse. Every night I sit in front of the TV and watch countries like Thailand and Malaysia show commercials to the ‘rest of the world’, while, at bes, you’ll see Philippine commercials on ANC … going out to other Pinoys.
ANC/TFC isn’t a charity, it costs money to advertise there also, just like Nat Geo and Discovery Asia … money the DoT obviously _has_ , since they are spending it… but it’s aimed the wrong target market. Like trying to Penthoue subscriptions at a Christian Revival meeting … a total waste of time.
The DoT also has a sizeable print advertising budget in the USA … but they put it almost all into Filipino special interest publications. Memo to DoT. Filipinos already know what country they hail from. Overseas there are mainly two types of Filipino .. the one who are away because they need the job and can’t wait to return home, and the ones who have migrated permanently and have little or no interest if returning. Both groups are kind of a dumb place to spend advertising money on.
The money issue is mainly being used as an excuse to cover up poor thinking … becuase it is obvious the money is there and being spent every day.
(I did a series here on LiP last year on this same issue, got quite a few interesting comments)
I totally agree with you, Dave, the money is there, it just needs to be re-targeted. I think we all agree that properly spend ad money would produce results – if it is coupled with fixing some of the tourism problems like online booking and such – so it can’t really be a money issue. If the money is spent, more money will be produced, an actual profit!
I have seen TV ad campaigns for the Maldives… Vietnam…. even Cambodia! If those countries can afford to advertise, certainly the Philippines could too.
Bob, here’s another positive nugget of trivia most people probably don’t know… The Philippines are NOT a “Third World Country.”
According to a number of Google and Wicki searches, the Philippines are a “2nd World Country”. Yes, technically still a developing country but not a member of the Third World Nations. Apparently they left the third world country list in 2006.
–Rich–
Hi Rich – There are several different definitions of “Third World Country”. Under some definitions the Philippines is Third World, under other definitions it is not. The definition you are using is based on Political alignment during the Cold War.
Anyway, for me, the Philippines is what it is, no matter what we call it. I personally don’t care if it is 3rd World, or anything else, it’s where I choose to live, and for the most part I like it the way it is.
Thanks for your comment, Rich!
Hi Bob,
I sometimes wonder if they really want to attract worldwide tourists.
I was thinking about this the other day when your other article appeared.
If i put myself in the shoes of a western tourist who wishes to visit Asia,with no connections in Asia,where would i go:
Thailand or Malaysia,coz everything can be booked from my armchair,including any in country trips i might want to make.
The Philippines would just be too much hassle,as there is no tourism infrastructure to make it easy for me to book everything.
This probably explains why there are no travel agents,i know of,in the UK,that offer any holidays to the Philippines.
regards Chas.
Exactly, chasdv, and it’s up to the Philippine Government to change that!
Bob: In the case of Malaysia, the Dept of Tourism was somewhat privatised, with the government holding a majority share… Financial incentive from investors who want to be paid back. Therefore, the hotels, tour companies, airlines, etc actually pay the Tourism Dept to promote their businesses. In fact, last year Indonesia and Malaysia had a spat because one of the “Truly Asia” commercials showed a Balinese Dancer, and the Indonesians wanted to be paid. Needless to say, Indonesia’s tourism suffers from much the same problems as the RP: reputation, high poverty, and complete disconnect with infrastructure. I’ll give them this much credit, though: That irritating “You can do everything in Jakarta” commercial is a start… I even saw it while travelling in Europe last month. They also integrate tourism with native industries… A flight on Garuda gets you a thick booklet (100 pages or so) listing native products for sale through the tourism dept.
In India, the government worked out deals with the Universities churning out hospitality graduates and business graduates to provide the manpower and expertise. They are also paid by businesses for advertyising their products.
Hi John – As you point out, there are workable solutions to funding the tourism problem, but the Philippine government simply needs to be a bit more creative and think outside the box. Hoteliers and Restaurateurs and such also need to think in a way that would attract more tourists to their places. It can be done, we only need to look at Thailand, and even Vietnam is coming into the fray now. There is no reason that the Philippines can’t do it.
Nice article Bob. That would be a great job for you somewhere in the ” International Dept. of Tourism “. You say they don’t easily give jobs to forigners ? In the case of International Tourism it just could be a case of ” It takes a foriegner to attract a foriegner “. I think that is evident right here on LIP and some of your other websites.
As many of you know, I only found out about visiting The Philippines by accident while websurfing one night, or, maybe it found me. Best vacation I ever had and I have been back for more !
Hi Bob – I would love the challenge of having some kind of official role of helping the Philippine Government become a more prominent tourist destination. I doubt highly that any such role would be offered to me, though. I have lots of ideas of things that could be done to help solve the problem. But, we would have to see if such a thing would ever happen, which I doubt highly.
It’s definitely on my list of favorite places in fact it is number one in my book. You know I had a Filipino doctor in the states telling my father he should worry about me moving to the Philippines because they kidnap Americans there. Now if Filipinos are starting to say this it is hard for us to stop such thinking.
Hi Dan – I believe that Filipinos have been saying that for years. I know that 10 years ago, Filipinos in the States convinced my Mom that I would be killed if I moved here. I heard such things from Filipinos 20 years ago!
I agree! However, if I was writing the article, I would have put the last paragraph first. The government has limited funds and has done a mediocre job of promoting the Philippines. It seems like recently, the focus has been on getting Balikbayans to come over here. Good idea, since they are often the the ones bad-mouthing the Philippines, as mentioned by other above.
But, the ones with the most to gain are the hotel and resort owners, and they have the motivation, and in many cases, the capital to invest in good customer interface. THEY need to be challenged to get out there and make it easy for people to know about them and their services and easy to do an online booking. There are only a few hotels here in CDO which have online booking. They are the most expensive ones, and not always the best ones. Too bad for the tourists, and too bad for the other hotel owners!
We have booked with AsiaRooms for places in Thailand, and it is a dream. Everything worked. We have booked a room in Manila once throught them and were sorely disappointed when the good reviews were not true and the booking was ignored.
So, somebody tell the hotel owners how to get return customers!
Hi AmericanLola – I went back and re-read that last paragraph, and indeed it is a very important one…. probably for me it still belongs at the end, though… sort of the “moral of the story” if you know what I mean. 😉
I only disagree with one part of your comment… I don’t think the government has done a “mediocre job” in promoting tourism. I think you are being too kind with those words… 😉
You do come up with the great finds, Bob. Good catch here. You know it is virtually impossible to find a Philippine business without awards and superlatives attached. Everyone has got to be the oldest, the biggest, ‘one of the best’, etc.
I even get a kick out of TV, there’s a commercial for David Letterman that is essentially a list of accolades from his long TV career. It narrates one award or another all the way back to something he won in 1981! Almosr 30 yars ago, yet still worthy of paying for the TV time to mention it.
So one of ‘the most prestigious’ magazines in the world names the Philippines in it’s ‘prestigious’ top 25 list, and it doesn’t even make the news?
I can’t understand it, myself. Everyone likes to keep records here and to enumerate achievements from the past … and why not, it’s human nature and people earned it … so why isn’t this particular achievement being shoouted about … the DoT seems to be their own worst enemy at times.
Hi Dave – To be honest, I was really shocked when I found this “Top 25 List” on National Geographic. Indeed, you would have thought that it would be on the front page of every newspaper, and the first headline on the TV news! This is worthy of a DoT TV commercial in it’s own right! Yet, as far as I know, nobody here knows anything about it! I know that I did not, until I just stumbled upon it.
I would be willing to bet, though, that if NatGeo had an article telling how dangerous the Philippines is, how dirty the travel areas are, anything at all negative there would have been a barrage of bad news all over the media talking about how bad NatGeo is! Don’t you think?
Landing in the Philippines not knowing anyone can be more than a little intimidating. Good tour guides are rare as chickens teeth, partly because most Pinoy are very parochial and only familiar with their local area. Often they are scared of other provinces within their own country.
There is a great opportunity for tourist development in the Philippines, no doubt. Start a tour guide company, mmmm there’s a thought!
Well, Bob, this just in – just in time for helping with improvements to the tourism trade and misconceptions by foreigners:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20100121-248662/Davao-execs-slam-anti-Red-solons-over-smear-campaign