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Philippine Tourism: PKG?

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PKG. That’s what this article is about.  What is PKG?  Well, it’s the latest attempt by the Philippine Department of Tourism to come up with a campaign to bring tourists to the Philippines.  Frankly, I think it is a looser.

I should say, I think it’s a big loser.

For the past 8 years, the slogan for the tourism campaign of the Philippines has been “WowPhilippines.”  Lots of countries have slogans for their tourism campaign. India has “Incredible India.”  Malaysia says they are “Truly Asia.”  There are many others as well.  It appears that the slogan “WowPhilippines” is now dead.

The new slogan is PKG – Pilipinas Kay Ganda.  Yeah, that’s it.  I didn’t type it wrong.  I didn’t misspell anything.  They are trying to attract foreign tourists using a Tagalog slogan.

Philippine Secretary of Tourism Alberto Lim has been saying in the media for months that the DoT has something big up it’s sleeve and it will be introduced soon.  This is it, Pilipinas Kay Ganda.

The new campaign was rolled out earlier this week, and ever since the roll out there has been an uproar in the Philippines.  Unhappiness with the new slogan seems to be almost universal here in the Philippines.   A lot of people, like me, can’t understand why they would choose to make the campaign slogan a Tagalog phrase if they are aiming to attract foreign tourists.  I mean, the vast majority of their target audience won’t even know what the phrase means!  Most foreigners won’t know how to pronounce it either.  For those who are wondering what it means, “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” means “Philippines So Beautiful”.

Web Problems

The name leads to even more problems when you consider putting up a website for the campaign.  These days, the Web should be the first line of attack when promoting a tourism destination.  What are you going to get for the domain name (something.com)?  PilipinasKayGanda.com?  How will you attract your visitors?  They won’t know how to spell the name!  Oh, don’t worry, though, they chose a different domain name.  BeautifulPilipinas.com is the name.  Hmm… one word in English and one in Tagalog!  That makes sense.  Guess what?  If you accidentally type in “BeautifulFilipinas” (F instead of a P) you end up at a porn site!  Yes, it was in place before they even started the campaign too.

The website was all set up and operational earlier this week.  It no longer exists (at least as of the time of this writing).  After it was launched, people started telling the DoT that there were lots of misspelled words on the site, poor grammar, etc.  The DoT had to pull down the site to re-work it.  Now, they are even saying they will get a different domain name for it.  So, basically all of the work and money spent was wasted.

Going back to the Tagalog name for the campaign, I saw an interview with a tourism official about this.  DoT Undersecretary Vicente Romano was asked why a Tagalog name was chosen for the campaign slogan.  Here is his response:

“Offering a slogan in Pilipino not only makes us different. It also gives an opportunity to start a conversation and engage them more intimately. It is a matter of execution.”

“We have a very limited budget compared to our neighbors in Asia. We’re about 1/17th of Thailand’s budget for 2011. All of our neighbors have chosen an English word to describe its character. If we follow the same path, our brand will simply be drowned out by our neighbors’ bigger ad budgets,” he added.

OK, if you have a limited budget, it would seem to me that by making the phrase in Tagalog that would mean that you have to spend more, because now you also have to educate the customer what the phrase means.  If you say it in English you only need to sell the country… say it in Tagalog and you have to spend time and money explaining what the slogan means.  It does not make sense to me.

Another consideration.  All of the “big boys” of tourism in the region, people like Malaysia and Thailand have huge budgets.  Romano is saying that the Philippines needs to make itself different.  But, wait, if these others are very successful with what they are doing, why be different?  Emulate success!  Right now, the Philippines is saying that these others are very successful, so let’s not do what they are doing!  That, in my mind is crazy.

For me, I believe that the old name, “WowPhilippines” is a very good name and slogan.  If you have a limited budget why not use the existing name, and improve the campaign?  I mean, it costs money to create a new name, new logo and everything.  There is a perfectly good name in place that costs nothing!  Why not keep using it?  Mistakes were made with the WowPhilippines campaign that the government has used in the past 8 years, but spend time, money and energy making the campaign better, and improving on it instead of throwing it out for something that is not nearly as good!

So, basically, the Department of Tourism has been working on this new campaign ever since President Aquino came into office in June.  Frankly, it seems to me that it was all a waste of time and money.

Pilipinas Kay Ganda? Sayang.  Sus Ginoo!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bob you hit all the arguments right on the head just on this subject of “Tourism” alone and of course you can extend this same argument for just about everything else bureacratically that comes out of the philippines. The Philippines is the “Peter Principle” in high gear. For those not familiar with this phrase it means “If anything can go wrong it will go wrong” or “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence”. This is the only country in the world that can probably market their most precious fruit the “Mango” and make it seem like eating elephant dong. So very sad and it must drive you nuts as it does me.

    • Hi Dwayne – You are so right.. especially when it comes to tourism. Sometimes I practically pull my hair out when I see the poor way the country is marketed! This latest incident is just crazy. There are no excuses for this kind of ineptness!

      • I love the Philippines it never fails to amaze me. You have to sympathize with them sometimes there so sweet and innocent. They are forever tripping over their own feet.
        Ah the Philippines you gotta love it.

          • Yes, in way we Filipinos are a bunch of kids– we never mature into adults.

            I’m almost sure Wow Phil was ditched because of only reason: it’s a holdover from Gloria, and anything from Gloria is to be avoided like the plague.

            Too bad, it doesn;t often work that way.

      • Bob – I think the problem is that they simply don’t know who their “Ideal Customer” really is. If they don’t know or understand their “Ideal Customer” aka target market, they’ll continue to stumble like a “drunkard through the night” in their efforts to reach them.

        Locate the “Ideal Customer” or “Ideal Market”, and let them help setup a campaign – and they’ll most likely end up with a winner on their hands.

  2. I’d rather see you and the rest of the foreigners who are happily retiring in the Philippines to effectively promote our country. It seems like the tourism department is failing on this one. The WOW Philippines campaign was very effective, why they don’t just “jazz” it up?

    • Thank you Jon. I appreciate your opinion. I think that “Wow Philippines” is really a good slogan, and like you say, the campaign can be jazzed up a bit and made better! Pilipinas Kay Ganda might be good for the local tourism market, but certainly not for International!

      • Bob – If they are trying to entice back Filipinos, they are missing the whole point. While it may seem like the “low hanging fruit”, that is simply not the case. Filipinos who don’t come back, or don’t come back frequently, most often stay away for reasons beyond their own control. I don’t know of any that I can think of that stay away willingly.

    • Jonathan

      Your right retirees and foreigners would be the best people to promote the philippines. I believe if tourists got the truth straight from the best source, tourism would just take off and
      eleminate a lot of the negative images of the country. ie, bus hostage tragedy in Manila.

          • Even previous governments has at one point indicated that Mindanao is dangerous..lol. That’s why I haven’t been there, and I’m a Filipino…lmao. Just mention the places like Tawi-Tawi, ARMM, Maguindanao etc etc and immediately we get the images of war and poverty and warring factions in our minds. No offense meant to my kababayans but this is me talking as a Manileno. 🙂

            • Hi Jonathan – I’ve been to all of the places you mention. Went to Tawi Tawi in 2006. Have been to ARMM and Maguindanao (Maguindanao is part of the ARMM btw) many times over the years. Don’t believe everything you read in the papers. I actually feel a lot more unsafe in Manila than I do in Maguindanao!

        • Mike – Take solace that the US has now declared most of the rest of the world too dangerous for travel too. I think their operational slogan must be “Just stay home, you’re safe with us”. We like to keep fear alive over here.

          We’re going to have to merge all the airlines into one, and call it Con(vict) Air. Proceed to the changing area and don your orange jump suits, pick up issues toiletries, and proceed to security checkpoints. 🙂

      • Thanks Randy. I was also thinking of ’em infomercials on tv. Maybe they can use testimonial videos from foreign tourists/retirees and post it on DOT’s website. I also remember this video from 7 Habits where they feature Mauritius as a country accepting their cultural and religious diversity, maybe DOT can use someting like that. Just a thought.

  3. Bob..maybe they were directing it at all the Fillipino peoples that live out side the Phillipines ?Because they on the most part are the only ones who would know what “Pilipinas Kay Ganda ” means…I sure would have not known if you would have not transalated it…but hey…“WowPhilippines.“ belive it or not is how I found your site LIP..near 4 years ago..and I can understand “WowPhilippines.“…I kinda liked the phrase..because after you look at a lot of photos and such of the Philippines you do in your mind kinda go “wow”!!…but maybe the Fillipinos in charge of all of this (no insult intended) do not really care that much what Foreigner’s think any way….or maybe its all just out of stock……

    • Hi Dan – Ha ha… funny thing is that this campaign is specifically geared toward attracting the foreigners to come to the Philippines! It doesn’t make much sense, though, does it? Like you say… maybe it’s out of stock… I think common sense is out of stock sometimes! 😆

  4. an opportunity to start a conversation and engage them more intimately.
    It is a matter of execution.”
    WoW !!!
    I have seen this kind of Logic several times by People in high places there.
    all I can say is ” WoW”
    I just can’t understand that Logic at all.
    But it dose seem to exist there in some circles.

  5. I’d rather see you and the rest of the foreigners happily retiring in the Philippines to effectively promote our country. It seems like the tourism department is failing on this one. The WOW Philippines campaign was very effective, why they don’t just “jazz” it up?

  6. As with Dan, I’ve wondered about the true target of Philippine tourism for years. While the previous ads put out under the WowPhilippines banner were acceptable – barely – in Canada they only appeared on the multicultural channel, during the Philippines hour, meaning that only Filipinos/as and, at best, their canadian-born children & non-filipino spouse saw the ads. What a waste of money!

    Unless their goal is to make OFWs home-sick, they’d better go back to the drawing board. I would highly recommend that they follow the moves of Panama, which has made retirement there very attractive for foreigners. In fact, if not for having property in The RP, we’d probably have bought in Panama(and are still considering this). As retirees will be the bulk of travellers in the future, and as many retirees would prefer to retire in a place where their savings/pension(s) are enough to live comfortably, it is my humble opinion that the Philippines target this demographic. Florida targetted retirees in Canada, decades ago, and still reaps the rewards.

    As for attracting expat foreigners who live/work in Asia, If the tourism dept. can guarantee safe passage & control costs, they could have thousands of ESL teachers coming from South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, every six months, or so. Before I met my wife in Taiwan, my Manchester buddies & I were discussing future vacations; Borocay, Bali, & Koh Phangan being the considerations(1990/91). We spent many NT$(New Taiwan dollars) calling resorts in each area and asking questions. In both Koh Phangan and Bali, the resorts were very receptive. In Borocay, they wanted to book rooms/accomodations for us, but seemed reticent to discuss the amenities of the area. Very frustrating!

    • Hi Mike – You hit on a point that I intended to include in my article, but neglected to. For years, the Philippines has seemed to concentrate it’s promotion toward Filipinos overseas. Heck, Filipinos already know about the Philippines, and will travel here without being advertised to! They need to focus on the mass market, not people who are naturally going to be coming anyway!

  7. bob,

    it doesn’t matter whatever slogans the DOT might come up with, any slogan will be useless if they will not back it up with a worldwide exposure, seriously bob, with the WoWPhilippines slogan, how many countries knows about it? or have they ever seen a wowphilippines commercial?

    as far as i know, PKG is still a concept and there is no concrete plans yet, the senators will be grilling Lim to explain why did he come-up with a Tagalog Slogan? many senators are not in favor of the PKG, and Lim is jeopardizing his appointment from the CA.

    how about this for a slogan … “Experience “the” Island” lol!

    • Hi dans – you are right. The Philippines used to advertise it’s WowPhilippines campaign on worldwide TV back in 2002 through 2004 or so. That all stopped, though due to a lack of budget.

      PKG is more than a concept, or was. The campaign was launched this past Monday, but later withdrawn due to the problems. It’s all back on the drawing board now. I don’t know for a fact, but I heard they spent P200M on the campaign so far… all for nothing!

  8. Thank you Jon. I appreciate your opinion. I think that “Wow Philippines” is really a good slogan, and like you say, the campaign can be jazzed up a bit and made better! Pilipinas Kay Ganda might be good for the local tourism market, but certainly not for International!

  9. I have been in the tourism biz for over 25 years, I made numerous attempts to help tourism in the PH, all failed. When the PDOT office opened in Toronto it was geared towards the Filipino community-heck they didn’t even get funds for their local WOW website, agents had to kick in funds to build it. There is one fundamental flaw in the numbers game, BI reports based on passport holder, not country of birth as they do in most other ASEAN countries, there is a formula for reporting tourism figures to PATA which the PH does not follow. These flawed numbers make it virtually impossible for a major tour house to assess the true market potential.
    If I may be bold, MNL doesn’t hold a candle to any of the other hotspots in Asia, until they are able to make decent improvements, I would suggest they make CEB/DAV the spotlight.
    For those of us who have travelled in Asia, all you need to do is look at Nathan Road, Sukhumvit, Orchard Road and see tourists.

    Last note, another major flaw as a previous post mentioned are the ways hotels do business, they insist full payment on a credit card, the vast majority still use yahoo/gmail/hotmail email accounts even though they may have protected their domain, I’m not likely to give my details to a yahoo email.

    • Hi John – Thank you for your efforts to promote tourism in the Philippines. I have done so as well, but not for nearly as long as you have! The statement by the PAL agent does not surprise me, although it certainly saddens me!

      Your point about hotels and other tourism related businesses use of the web is so true!

  10. Bob;
    “WoW Philippines Kay Ganda (So Beautiful)” would have made more sense. The change was made for change sake alone. The new guy wants to show the boss he’s doing something, now he did that, he showed the boss he’s doing something wrong. Unless he owns that porn site????

    • Hi Paul… hmm… now that is something I had not considered… maybe somebody at DoT owns that porn site! If so, they did a great job of promoting themselves! 😆

    • Paul: You and I sort of agree on this… “The Wow Philippines…Kay Ganda” could work, but only if you could put the money into advertising it properly. I’m talking about the Madison Ave. level of expertise, with slick TV commercials and copy that “explains” the slogan in English.I seem to remember a commercial for Thailand a number of years ago that had a montage of scenes of Thais saying “Welcome” in Thai, and at the end a big “Welcome” in Engilsh. Something like that might work, but Bob’s comments about even the URL? Spot on.

      • Hi John – I personally don’t see a need to add to the slogan… although I could see a commercial that would say “WowPhilippines – why?” And it would show Filipinos giving reasons – Why? One Filipino would say – “Because it’s beautiful” another would say – “The people!” – “The Beaches!” – “The luscious fruits” – “The Festivals” and so on. I think that could create a great spot to promote the country. Maybe at the end they could show a nice scene of natural beauty and say “Wow Philippines, kay ganda”.

        • Actually, Gordon’s DOT then had it all laid down pat. They had TV spots which show beautiful waterfalls, and there’d be a fast-moving wordplay on W- waterfalls, like that.
          all professional, ala-McCann- Ericksson.

    • The guy foolishly admitted that they don’t know about the porn site, which means they have not tested it via a search engine before they launch it. The least thing that they should do is put a “beta” note into the site to let the people know it’s still on test. However, I don’t believe it would cost 200 million pesos to build and research this kinda site….there’s something fishy going on around…tsk tsk tsk….

      • Hi jonathan – Yep, should have been fully tested before it was announced! I don’t know for sure if that amount of money was really spent, that’s just what I heard. It is way too much!

    • Paul Thompsoon…. Check! The guys at DoT should hire you folks who are retirees here and would know probably how to attract other foreigners to come here.

      Maybe they couldn’t come up anymore with slogan and just wanted to present it immediately as it would be holiday soon and they need to attract foreigners and balikbayans

      • I think one of the major obstacles to growth in this country would be the attitude that we can do things on our own without outside help ie. from foreign assistance. One very successful businessman once told me if you want to succeed, you need to ask a lot of questions, you will find most of your questions will be answered, you just gotta ask. I might be wrong but I feel the philippino doesn’t do enough research and development, they seem quite contented to try something and hope that it works, modern societies no longer work that way. Planning ( ok I can hear the peanut gallery roaring with laughter ) is crucial to any campaign, fail to plan and your planning to fail. I wish the DoT all the best but personally I don’t think the Philippines is ready for full blown tourism.

        • Hi Boss – Yes, I agree that many Filipinos are very sensitive to not wanting help from “outside” the country. I don’t know why, it is something that actually bothers me. As a foreigner, even if you only have in mind to do something to help the country, you often feel that you are best to just keep quiet and not make waves.

          • Well Bob, it’s like what President Manuel L. Quezon said that he, “prefer a government ran like hell by Filipinos than a government ran like heaven by the Americans”, or something to that effect. He said this during that time that we were “negotiating” or have “negotiated” our freedom from the Americans. I know he meant the other way to ignite the nationalism of the Filipinos but sometimes it gets overboard. i.e. “hubris”.

            • Please not jonathan, I didn’t say I wanted to “run the country” but just do something to help. It often feels unwelcoming or unfriendly in that respect. I love the Philippines, and I don’t see why lending a helping hand would be a negative.

  11. Talking about Porn sites you have to be carefull even when you are trying to get to know one of them beautifull Fillipina ladies on some of the date sites…sad to say a lot of them are a front for the numerious porn sites out there…Nothing wrong with porn if that is a persons thing, how ever most of them also are trying to steal your personal information…install mal ware on your computor and etc…and they have sneaky ways of trying to get you to point your brouser to one of them porn sites…few years ago got tricked into going and also ended up reformating a couple of computors before I realized what was going on…

    • Hi Dan – Ha ha… I personally have no problem if somebody wants to view porn. It’s not for me, but it’s a personal choice. For me… been there, done that… not interested anymore! 😯

  12. I totally agree Bob! I mean English is still the standard language out there and we are always boasting that we are an English speaking country, so why change the slogan to our local language when we are supposed to attract foreign tourists? If I’m a foreigner I would search for Philippines and not Pilipinas in the internet…duh

  13. Hey Bob,

    I’m English n live in Quezon Province wit me wife n 2 kids, we all know that these guys who set up the web knew it would fail, just another corrupt way of makin money ! The money went into their own pocket whatever the amount was.

    Government has to b stable b4 any tourism will b of any affect back in Philippines. Its known for terrorism, muggings etc on a daily basis.

    Its not a safe place to b n in the top 10 world wide web as a place not to go !!

    Until the Government crashes down on the major issues on safety in Philippines then they have no real future towards tourism.

  14. Yes, very true Jon. Also, it will only lead to confusion, and watering down the Philippine brand, by having the name of the country spelled differently.

  15. Hi Bob – I agree with your sentiments on this issue 100%. The Philippines is the largest English speaking country in SEA and they come up with a Tagalog slogan to attract tourists.
    We are but casual observers and guests so we wait with baited breath to see its effect on the tourisim industry.
    Regards.
    Jim.

  16. PKG!!?? Why not “Pilipinas Ka Lami”…hahaha… I still prefer WowPhilippines…. Ambot sa Presidente kung mo langyaw siya sa ubang nasud aron mangita’g investor why not improved the budget of tourism industry.?

  17. I just got back from the Philippines, spent time in Manila, Cebu and spent most of my time in Iligan City..I love the Philippines, but Iligan City feels like home to me. when I was there I read that tourism was actually up from last year

  18. Hi Bob – I like Iligan a lot too, I’ve been there many times! If tourism is up there, I hope they continue doing whatever they are doing! Ha ha… it’s a nice little town!

  19. Hi Bob – I like Iligan a lot too, I’ve been there many times! If tourism is up there, I hope they continue doing whatever they are doing! Ha ha… it’s a nice little town!

      • Hi Mike – Ha ha… the blog goes and picks up comments from Facebook, and sometimes it duplicates them. I haven’t had a chance to delete the duplicates yet. 😆 If you notice the name on my comment is “Bob Martin” that means it is from Facebook. If it is from “Mindanao Bob” that is a comment I made right here on LiP.

  20. Hi Bob – I like Iligan a lot too, I’ve been there many times! If tourism is up there, I hope they continue doing whatever they are doing! Ha ha… it’s a nice little town!

  21. Hi Bob – I like Iligan a lot too, I’ve been there many times! If tourism is up there, I hope they continue doing whatever they are doing! Ha ha… it’s a nice little town!

  23. I think everyone is absolutely correct in that any slogan would work if there was $$s to back it up as with advertising.

    Currently, I think that tourism to PI will follow the trend of expats moving to Asia for work. Once they are here, then most will naturally go to Boracay after going to the mandatory Phuket, Bali, Vietnam, and Camobodia. So the DoT could be its budget to better use in advertising in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Jakarta, etc. Forget about Europe and US for now. They can keep it simple by just targeting Lonely Planet website, Zuji, etc, which a ton of back packers use for guidance. Or submit articles on the in flight magazines of other airlines (not PAL). TV is expensive, but I do see a lot of Incredible India, Amazing Thailand, Truly Asia, Seoul, etc on the Discovery Channel, TLC. But rarely PI. Then they would feature crowded cities and jeepneys. Not something that I am too interested in.

    • Don – You are right in saying that money spent in the States or Europe would be a waste right now. Folks in the States are flat broke, or at least just getting by. I can’t speak for the citizens of Europe, only I know they can’t seem to keep their governments solvent right now.

      • Or, the Philippines could do some really close niche marketing, medical tourism, for instance. That’s one.

        Pardon me, guys, but another could be real, honest-to-goodness social introduction– not, definitely not, simply the usual slam-bang-thank-you-maam social introduction that crowd the Web. (FilipinasKayGanda.com?) In fact, I’ve cooking this in my mind for sometime now. How about a social introduction for foreign guys who are HONESTLY looking for Filipina LIFETIME partners, who are ready to accept that, in the Philippines at least, marriage is FOR LIFE?

        That’d mean having a very small market, but, I don’t know if you agree with me, but I think THAT market exists– you know, foreigners who are not happy with the way the women in their country seem to think they, and not the men, should be the boss– you know. Or women who couldn’t stick to one man.

        I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately.

      • That’s right- PIGS is scraping bottom, and Germany’s all they have to keep them afloat. Good that Merkel’s in a Santa Claus mode. PIGS is Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain.

    • Hi Don, Pardon me, I’m curious, why not PAL’s mabuhya magazine?

      By the way, would you know the names of the in-flight magazines of other airlines? I’d like to pitch articles? I have a published article with Mabuhay magazine.

    • Don, I like that. You seem to know a lot about tourism. I’m in the hospitality business too. I work for a country club/hotel, and I like what I’ve been hearing from you.

  25. philipinas Kay Gandas: I’m just an old redneck but this slogan makes me think of a girl on a street cornner with big ;;;Eyes hhhmmmm.But us rednecks can barely read english so this is very confusing.

  26. @Bob: i totally agree with you. haven’t they studied mass communications 101 and basci anthropology, not to mention good ole’ common sense??$$ .. naturalists mimic bird sounds to attract birds… mothers cooo their new-born infants to establish bonding…. basic rule of thumb: speak in the language your audience understands. now, if i were a dog lover, heaven for me would be to be able to learn dog language. why do you think steve jobs made billions? because he made communication so much easier.

  28. Yes Bob , when i first saw the slogan , did not know what means , my wife told
    me : beatifull .
    I think that most people will compare it with GAY .
    And about GANDA , that,s knowing as a famous expensive HAM from Spain , mostly used
    in very expensive restaurants .
    But it,s true that tourism is allso know in Iligan ,
    just last week i mailed to The Tourist office there amd the governement ,
    and both responsed within 2 days . before it took months , or no answer at all !
    and before it was only Cheradon and Rene,s Pension , but since a couple of weeks there are more hotels with E-mail adres .
    For me slogan with Philippines is better .
    Can,t wait till Febr. when we visit again .

    • Hi Anton – I really am happy that the tourism office responded to your e-mail, that really is progress! I didn’t know about the expensive ham, that’s funny!

  29. Hi Bob,
    Many people i speak to in the West,don’t even know where the Philippines is on the map,now they will be even more confused.
    Maybe they need another new slogan “Only in the Philippines” Haha LOl.
    regards,Chas.

  30. Hi Herman – As you point out, it is just basic common sense. I can’t understand how these intelligent government officials can get so far off track!

  31. Hi bob well i am not conversant in tagalog or really any of the other dialecs spoken there so to me i dont know what it says ,ok wow phillipines is dead how about something that westerners can relate to like fabulous phillipines ,or fantastic philipines or philipines the forgoten jewel of asia and have a upmarket video promo to go with it to showcase some of the lovely places to visit surfers know of it because of cloud nine one of the best breaks in the world but most other people tyring not to generalize only think of bar girls as there was a trade in sex tours some time ago i dont know if it still exists ,very few people wouldeven know of a philipino i have worked with both male and female and still do as one is my project manager where i work if they want to boost tourism it is going to take more than a sticker with a foreign saying on it (to a westerner i mean) i beleive that the phillipines has enourmous potential for tourism but it is going to be a long road if they cannot do better than that ,in reallity what tourism or travel agent would even be able to sell a holiday there with that slogan the first question i would ask is what does it mean ?
    chris

  34. You’ve already hit all the important points (tagalog slogan, website address flaw).

    I will add though that even without the similarities with a porn site address, asking a person to type “beautiful” and “pilipinas” to get to the address just makes it more difficult for them. One english word, another Tagalog + Multiple syllables: Limited visitors. There’s a reason why companies like google, cnn, espn, inquirer etc, keep their addresses simple.

    i’ll just mention the logo.

    Yeesh, what a mess. The fonts, the design, no flow…I’ll spare you the details but it looks like a bad tshirt design from the early 90s. Shrink that logo down as a sticker or embroidery & the tarsier on the “I” becomes muddled & lost (you could barely make it out on your larger attached photo).

    It may seem like a minute point, but a product image can go down the drain when you skimp on the logo. Quite amatuerish for a big budget government campaign . So many qualified graphic designers in the country (I repeat SO MANY) & they probably went for cheap & asked a tourism exec’s artsy niece to draw fun.

    btw, I speak a lot of tagalog & i’ve never used the phrase “kay ganda” in my life.

    • Hi macky – I agree fully that making the web address one Tagalog word and one English word is plain crazy. It adds to confusion, and leads to misspellings, which as I pointed out, will lead to “wrong” sites that the DoT certainly doesn’t want potential tourists to end up at!

    • I agree with you Macky about a bad shirt design. My husband and I had a screen printing business 8 years ago. Our design for T-shirts for Phillip Island (tourist spot for watching fairy Penguins in Victoria Australia) was better than the tourism logo for Philippines. My husband would reject this design.

      • Rob —

        Haha. Fair point. I’ve only used “mabuhay” in jest & the last time was probably in the early 90s.

        Still, at least “mabuhay” is pretty much identifiable to the whole country (i.e. Aloha). On “Kay ganda” on the other hand, it’s usage is limited in the tagalog/luzon region (I’m aware mabuhay is tagalog too, but it’s constant slogan usage has surpassed that limitation).

      • Mabuhay is more of a formal greeting transilated to “Long Life” and/or “Welcome”. But you won’t be going round town and greeting foreigners with this word. When you meet someone, Kamusta/Kumusta ka? is the more appropriate term in tagalog. I don’t know, maybe we should adapt our other local dialects who have a more appropriate meaning (as comapred to Mabuhay) and incorporate it to the national language which is Pilipino, and have an identity around it like the Hawaians use “Aloha”. Just a thought.

  35. I just found out that they may have copied the logo off Poland’s tourism office. Bad design is one thing, just stealing one & claiming coincidence is just plain lazy & dumb.

    http://spankyenriquez.blogspot.com/2010/11/plagiarized-pilipinas-kay-ganda-logo.html

    I once commented about my doubts about the new DOT head & his lack of vision for the Tourism campaign in an earlier article of yours. Unfortunately, I think I was right about my thoughts on him.

    They are considering dropping the new campaign but commended it for being “risky” and “daring”. I’m not sure those 2 words are what he thinks they mean.

  36. Is Alberto Lim already approved by the powerful Commission on Appointments headed by Senator Miriam Santiago? Well, I’ve seen Senator Miriam on the news and she’s back to her fiery self telling the news crew about the DOT’s flaw to use “neurons, neurons, neurons” in their brains….lol

  38. Wow Philippines rocked as a slogan. I always smile when I see the Wow Philippines-branded cab here in London (there’s at least one). I also one time saw a London double decker bus with the slogan – it was an old Routemaster used for private hire; no idea how the slogan ended up there.
    Anyway, agree with all your points and hope they reconsider getting rid of Wow Philippines!

  40. Hi Bob! I was waiting for this post. figured you were gonna say something with this Tourism mess. It’s a loser indeed!

    PKG? Pilipinas Kay Ganda! Is that a new game show? Ha ha ha! There is a morning shown called UKG- Umagandang Kay Ganda! He he. Everybody was OK with Wow Philippines! DoT should’ve have come up something better as new slogan. I’m pretty sure there will be variation to this Pilipinas.. some will just use the F and not P as in Filipinas Kay Ganda.. and then some Porny dude, will exploit that. Terrible!

    The guys from DoT said the original was supposed to ‘beautifulphilippines (something like that) but there is an existing (porn?) site. Yikes!

    DoT should just hire you or consult you.They need somebody with brains out there!

    • Hi Sugar – It does sound like a game show, doesn’t it? I had not really thought of that.

      For me, they should keep the WowPhilippines name, but just improve how it is used. It is already recognized, and a lot of people already know it. Look at Dr Nick from London who commented earlier about how he loved seeing taxi cabs in London that were decorated with the “WowPhilippines” decor.

      • Bob – Yep, majority of people recognized the slogan how about. Just needs to improve. How about Wow Philippines, Wow paradise! Hmm…

        And now thanks to DOT, I discovered something… I will make my own slogan.. Sugar Kay Ganda! Now that is whoa… and a wow! Me is thick face! 🙂

  42. hi bob. wow philippines was a great slogan but no or little exposure here in the west.as you discussed before, direct flights from the west have got to be a base line, tourists do not like changing planes. but also if they are marketing a product to the west then surely employ western advertising agencies who understand the market, as companies in the west do when marketing the other way. yes, expensive but may produce results instead of fiascos

    • Hi Paul – Yes, I think you are right about employing western agencies if you are marketing to the west. Also, with a limited budget, spend it on fixing the problems like flight connections and stuff instead of “designing” a new logo and slogan!

  43. …i think you are sick mr.martin…Y putting us down always…we are a free nation…and you ‘re in a free nation…ohh! it’s ok …this nation has a bunch of crazy alien anyway…hw’s dat?

  44. Bob – Another thing that is wrong with the slogan…. it’s great to promote the Tarsier but why is
    it there? It’s not even the national bird of the Philippines and Tarsiers are mainly found in Bohol (not sure about that). Must be the yellow eyes.. it matches the sun.. he he.

  46. bob,

    how about this for slogan. “Phillippines B’s – Beer, Babes, Beaches!” hahaha it is a guarantee anyone can understand it ! LOL!!

  47. I’d be interested to hear how many of you have ever met a genuine foreign tourist, not sex tourists, businesspersons on a tourist visa, balikbayans,foreign husbands coming to visit with their Filipina wives, ex-military coming to relive the past. Oh, also exclude pure beach tourists who go to Boraquay and all they want is sun and sand and a bit of surf – all can be found in abundance around the world. I am talking about foreign tourists who are coming to see the overall country, as in tourists who tour. Seen many? Any?

    Two “funny” tourist promos: 1. A tourist agency that promoted tours of Vietnam for former air force personnel. Their slogan was: “You’ve bombed it from the air, see it on the ground.” 2. A golfing tour of Mongolia that treated its endless “steppes” as a golf course. It started at one end of the country and just kept on walking and hitting the golf ball until (after two summers) the tour reached the other end of the country.

    • Hi Don – I’ve met a number of foreign tourists – all coming from China – who visit and stay at the Ft. Ilocandia Resort near Laoag City. They use the resort as a base, take in all the local atmosphere, then spread out north (to the world-class beaches of Pagudpud) and south (to the UN Heritage Site at Vigan).

      It doesn’t hurt that there is some Chinese ownership in the resort – they know how to advertise.
      😉

  48. Bob,

    I had a really good laugh reading comments by readers on Philippine Star that P-Noy seems to be running his government like a Student Council.

    I am beginning to feel disappointed in P-Noy and the nonchalant way of dealing with issues.

    JB

    • Hi JonB – Nice to hear from you, I hope all is going well. I hope that P-Noy can turn things around, I am afraid I would have to agree with some of those comments that you mentioned.

  49. I love the Philippines, Constantino. You must be confused or something. I usually praise the country, but when a mistake is made like this one, I will surely speak my mind.

  50. I wonder if recognizing that there are two kinds of tourist markets, if there should be different promotions. Domestic and Foriegn with each promotion catering to that particular and targeted area. I agree also with one of the other posts that an agency or other promotion type of business should be given the opportunity to develop a marketing plan for it’s own part of the world it will be advertising in, such as someone familiar with what will attract Americans, another in the know of what will attract those from the UK and Europe, etc.

    • Hi Bob – In the past, the Philippines has really had a separate campaign for domestic tourism and foreign tourism. The DoT has specifically said that this new campaign is aimed at the foreign market… which doesn’t seem to make much sense.

  51. Bob, he he he…another “palpak”. Took you awhile to write about this. Right off the bat, this thing was a goner. In Filipino forums, people were thrashing it. Me included. The beleaguered DOT Sec and the man with a P100 m budget to improve the Philippines image online after the HK tourist fiasco could only come up with half-assed explanations to cover for their incompetence, or dire lack of internet savvy. Even “kay ganda” isn’t true Tagalog – que ganda, chabacano .

    After 9/11 and SARS, wowphilippines managed to get double digit growth and has been steady since. It brought more tourists to more places (some I don’t even know about). It also excited locals to travel in their own country. Domestic tourism in the country is now a big industry otherwise local airlines, the ferries won’t survive. Why fix if it ain’t broken. Spain’s “Espana” campaign (with that famous Miro artwork) started in the 80’s, I Love New York had been around since late 70’s.

    As for competence, they could have asked a high school kid to play with the domain in the search engines in half an hour they they would have found out. Anyway lots of things wrong with that campaign. I’ve said enough on other forums. Mickey mouse, amateurs. Nice try, but does it sell? Brain cells – aqui no.

    Alex

    • Yes, I am afraid you are right about that, Alex. Wow Philippines has not drawn the number of tourists needed, but I don’t think it is because of the name, it needs more support, and a better marketing strategy.

  53. Hi Bob,

    I totally agree with your observations!! Right on!!

    Most head honcho in the Philippine bureaucracy are appointed by patronage. They do not really have the experience and education to lead the department. They lord it like it is their fiefdom, not listening to the workers and not even doing studies. You can do focus groups without incurring a huge cost. Email and online forms can be had to facilitate this or have a kiosk at the NAIA to ask tourists what they like about the Philippines. Have a contests sponsored by a big company to solicit the public about a new slogan. This head honcho won’t do it because he doesn’t listen as proven by his own retort. He should accept that he made a boondoggle.

    This head honcho should resign or be fired but this is not any other Asian countries, if a “MAJOR MAJOR MISTAKE!!” is made the government official resign, in the Philippines the official has a MAJOR MAJOR THICK SKIN FACE and half of the staff will lose their jobs because they’re relatives.

    A BIG SIGH****…….:(

    Toting

    • Hi Toting – Perhaps, given what you say about how people are appointed, this comes down to a cultural thing. Some incompetent people are appointed to important positions simply because of who they are, or who their friends are. Perhaps it is time to study that and decide if it is really the best way to move the Philippines forward.

      Thanks for your insightful comment, Toting!

  54. I hope that they would keep the slogan WOW Philippines, I thought that it is a catchy and ingenious slogan…from an acronym Wealth Of Wonders Philippines.

  57. Why not just use the english transalation “Philippines so Beautiful”? That would say it to me. I know what is implied by that and they would not be changing the meaning.

    Or they could promote just like I do when telling people about the Philippines – Its just like Hawaii, only less expensive. Thats when people start to relate.

    • Exactly. Philippines so Beautiful, it’s Paradise…..you can afford.

      Uh… where’s ‘Don Draper’ when you need good ad campaign to bolster Philippine tourism!

      🙂

    • Hi Darin – The “just like Hawaii” thing would be interesting, but probably only good for the North American market. For people in Europe and such, the Hawaii connection might not really work. Good idea, though.

  58. I would rather they stuck with something that worked (and already established internationally) even if it was from a previous administration / political opposite, than to $pend on rebranding it all over again.

    All that money soon to be spent for changing all tourism signs from “WOW Philippines” to “PKG” could have would have should have gone to improving the tourism sites themselves (infrastructure, support services, training for staff, etc.).

  60. @Constantino: it’s a cultural thing…. Westerners tend to be more assertive and direct, but not necessarily insulting…What Bob wrote is mild and completely civil to me… having lived overseas… My siblings also complain I am rude to them when I think I am not…

  62. Thanks Hernan, but Bob has also made that point in his article too. It just irks me when they say “limited resources” but they don’t seem to be using them resourcefully.

  64. Constantino – I have lived in the Philippines for 10+ years, and I am very supportive of the country. In that 10 years I have never returned to my homeland (USA) and I probably never will. I am even considering becoming a Philippine Citizen. Truth is, a lot of Filipinos are also against the new campaign.

  65. Wow, talk about shooting yourself in the foot (and with a 12-gauge shotgun too!) Just how did this Vicente Romano get his job any way??? Clearly he has “zero” advertising skills. Was he appointed by a family member?

    My daddy use to have a saying that sums up my thoughts on this one: Balance his brain on the sharp edge of a razor blade and it would look like a marble rolling down a four lane highway!

    • Hi Rich – Yeah, it really is a case of having shot themselves in the foot. It’s sad, because the country needs to build tourism to raise Filipinos out of poverty. I hope that they can turn it around.

      Your daddy was a wise man, Rich. 😉

  66. Bob,

    Besides systemic corruption, the problem with governing the Philippines is that they employ the wrong people for the JOB….

    I know this stems back to corruption… I guess the point I’m making here is that there will be no change without voilence…sad to say but I can not see how you can weed out the roots of evil within the government peacefully….

    ….maybe one day Philippines will have a charismatic and honest politician running for President….but his term would likely be short lived…

    …with P-Noy still being in his post, it would suggest his just another corrupt official wearing his parents colours…..shame on him..

    anyways…..besides that the Philippines is an awesome country, filled with smart & beautiful people…sadly the dumb & ugly sit in all government psotions

    • Hi Jimmy – Personally, I don’t think that P-Noy is corrupt. I feel it may be a situation where he was elected to a position that he was not really prepared for. Hopefully he can pull it together and make a difference for the country.

  67. Let’s hope they listen to the voice of reason and not the voice of pride: “I have to show my boss that I’m doing something new and innovative, coming up with this new campaign!”

    If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

  70. Something else they might want to change and that is with Luggage Allowance on the Domestic Airlines Cebu and Pal. The tourist bureau should negotiate with the airlines for tourists coming in internationally with a return ticket so they can be able to use their international baggage allowance while traveling domestically in the Philippines. Seems crazy that a tourist comes in with a 32kg x 2 bag allowance and then that is reduced to 15 to 25kg total domestic flying in the country. Seems most will have to pay a penalty right off the bat. Not a very nice intro to the Philippines. Doesn’t even give you much if any room to shop.

  73. I do not know Tagalog, so the name sounds like a woman or some type of giant food item, or maybe something worse.

    The guy who is in charge of this job should probably be reassigned to some other duty. He is probably a nice guy, but his talent in this area is lacking… obviously.

  76. Bob,
    I visited a lot of foreigners website living in the Philippines and i’m quite impressed on how they promoted the Phils. in their own way w/c ive’d never seen w/ some of gov’t officials responsible for promoting my country so this new slogan made me think of like “What the heck” are they doing promoting the Phils. using tagalog language, are they going to impressed the OFW’s or what?? Well, for me i still prefer the “WOW PHILIPINES”, at least everybody knows what is meant by this slogan……No wonder Sen. Merriam Defensor was not happy about it….tsk!tsk.tsk……

    • Hi Rebecca – Yes, I don’t understand why the Philippines is always promoting to OFW’s… I mean they are going to be coming here anyway, right? 😆

      Like you, I personally prefer the Wow Philippine slogan!

  78. Jalil, don’t shoot the messenger of bad news… shoot the source… you are upset over the symptoms, not the cause…. if you have fever, don’t damn the fever. be thankful…. it helps you to detect infection… perhaps sepsis of the blood system which will put you six feet under… same thing with a nation…incompetence + corruption need to be xposed. they are what make the Philippines dirt poor and the doormat of Asia.

  79. WoWPhilippines is way better than PKG and they should just stick to it and jazz it up as someone already commented.

    Lim should be replaced.. he has no idea what he is doing! He said they haven’t spent a single centavo yet for this PKG thing as this is still an idea and still testing it out… really??? So you think that they are not getting salaries while they are working on this? Even if let’s say the 200T budget is intact, the fact that they have spent man hours to work on this slogan is already a cost coming out of the people’s money!!!

    Anyway, I watched on ANC a discussion regarding this with people from the tourism industry, and it was brought up that using the vernacular could be risky as it might have a different meaning in other languages. And an example he gave was in India, GANDA means ugly or bad, and the funny thing is that the DoT is targetting people from India to visit the Philippines, and yeah with a slogan that says Pilipinas how ugly.

  80. …actually ..,i really do not have bad feelings towards mr.martin…in fact i like americans…i just do not like the way they’d commented…if mr.martin truly cares for us filipinoes…HE should DO SOMETHING to EASE our PAIN…NOT by BEING BIASED to the ISSUES…

    • Constantino, it would appear to me that it would be more appropriate for Filipinos to do something to “ease our pain” as you put it.If you persist in voting into power the incompetent and corrupt there is little that the foreign community can do about it. You seem to have the attitude commonly held that it is somebodyelses responsibility to fix the problems – you are a Philippino and the responsibility is on you and the millions of other citizens to use your vote or protest at some of the things that happen.All we foreigners can do is open some of these subjects for discussion – do not forget that your laws make it very easy to remove a foreigner who is too outspoken.

    • Gee Constantino, since you have already accused Bob Martin of being “sick” and also a ” crazy alien” – both of which seem to me like you have bad feelings towards Bob, altho you deny it, I find it strange that you want him to do something to ease your pain.
      What exactly is it that you want him to do ?
      And by the way, what is it that YOU do to ease the pain of filipinos ?
      And you say you like Americans- just what exactly is it that you like about Americans ? Do you think all Americans are the same ? You are very quick to attack others but I dont hear a single positive word coming out of your mouth.

  81. Well Bob, another topic generating lots of replies. Prima facie, it certainly appears to be a bit farcical. I’d say that PKG is not necessarily a bad promotional catchline, it just needs to be used in translated form too, perhaps a cleverly designed logo involving both english and tagalog wording.

    Like you, I’m not sure that anything should have been released yet…it tastes a little half-baked. The words ‘cohesive’ and ‘focussed’ don’t immediately come to mind. Personally, IMHO, I never liked the WowPhilippines tagline much, it seems a little lowbrow or uncultivated in light of the fact that it is not likely to be the bottom end of the market that would vacate in the Philippines, given that you can’t really get there for $500 for a fortnight’s all-inclusive holiday.

    They have a virtually zero budget for this marketing campaign though, so I think it’s all a question of bang-for buck marketing. So far, it’s looking like a misfire-for buck campaign though. I reckon they need Dubya’s marketing team, coz they did an amazing job in the face of adversity 🙂

    • Hi Jim – For me, I see no reason to use the Tagalog words, I mean, if the target is the foreign tourist, it simply is not necessary, and only means that you will have to spend time explaining what it means. But, to each his own, no doubt. Anyway, I have to say that other than that, I fully agree with your thinking.

  82. Constantino, it is obvious that you know nothing about me and what I do for Filipinos. Maybe you should study a bit before opening your mouth.. you might learn something.

    • Bob

      Right on Bob. He should get the facts before commenting. He just needs to man up and take the initiatve to help his country

  83. If you think this tourist promo is bad, twenty five years ago I went with my (now former) wife to a Philippine National Day party in Canada. The consul fropm the Embasy was the guest of honor. He showed a twenty minute tourist promo movie to engender feelings for the home country. After it was over I asked him who was the target audience? What do you mean? he asked. Well, in your movie, every time a white man is shown, he is accompanied by a very young knockout Filipina who is obviously more than a good friend. So is your message, “Come to the Philippines and get #$%^&^%$#ed by a beautiful young girl?” Gives a whole new meaning to “Wow Philippines.”

  84. This is the usual – too low a budget to be of any use and run by some amateur political crony.
    If tourism is to be promoted successfully it has to have a decent budget and high quality professional management of the project.The high quality specialist tourism managers are not to be found in the Philippines as there has never been a really concerted attempt to promote the islands.As the target of any promotion is the foreigner then use experienced foreign companies to organise it – they know what the foreign tourist wants. None of this will happen of course – there will not be the political will to involve foreign companies as it would be harder to “divert” large parts of the budget as usually happens with government projects.

    • Hi Bryan – I am not sure how much of a Political appointment Lim was, but surely he seems to be having issues with really delivering what is needed at DoT. He still has time to get it together, though, let’s just hope he can do it!

    • That’s right, Bryan. I’d say the governmwent should trim the DOT to just a fourth, then get some PRO in– you know, McCann, or at least Ogilvy and Mather. The country would have to pay with an arm and a leg to a pro, but it’s be self-liquidating, rather than spend for a white elephant like the DOT is now.

  85. Hi Bob – he certainly has got off to a shambolic start – does not bode well for the future! Another aspect of these projects is that they start off in a blaze of publicity then a few weeks later it is all forgotten – there does not seem to the capability to sustain an effort.

  86. Over the last few years I have brought various classmates ,boyfriends and girlfriends of my teenage children to the Pillippines – some had never been out of Europe but all loved the time they spent here. If they had come without us they would not enjoyed it at all as it requires local knowledge to get around Manila – they all loved 168!or find reasonably priced resorts. How would an ordinary tourist find the places to visit or reasonable hotels? Few tourists want to live in the Sheraton or the Hilton.We have spent time in a small resort called Tamaraw in Puerta Gallera – good value for money with a fine beach and excellent cottages.We found it by accident as the place we intended to go was terrible so we only stayed one night and looked for better – this would have been a catastrophe to an ordinary tourist.The places are there but nobody knows where they are!Some kind of standard has to be set – if it is not good enough shut it down as bad experiences get carried back home and discourage others. Discipline and organisation are required – commodities which are rare in the Philippines!

  87. @Constantino, it is unfair to label Bob biased and judge him as doing nothing when you haven’t even met the man. I re-read his essay and there is nothing that indicates so. The thing is many Pinoys and Pinays are deep in perpetual DENIAL and blaming others of the exceedingly worsening problems in Pinas. … like the story of the lephant in the room where a bunch of blind people were asked to describe it. One said it is a tree trunk after touching one of its legs; another, a rope after holding its tail. I would caution you to not hastily judging others and stick to issues in discussing problems. as I said, Westerners are more direct and mince no words.. Pinoys beat around the bush,,, which is probably why Pinas is in the gutter.

  88. I’m thinking a good slogan might be “Fleeced in the Philippines” as it is legal to charge foreigners more for hotel rooms – not a great way to attract visitors.

  89. Right now, there is one resource that could be used to promote tourism to the Philippines with great effect… Manny P! Love or hate Boxing as a sport….he’s world famous right now, and that fame is an expensive commodity…

    • Hi Jim – A number of people have been pushing the DoT to take on Manny Pacquiao as the tourism ambassador for the country. Manny has agreed to do so, but so far the DoT seems uninterested.

        • Hi Jim – Personally, I do not believe that is the case. Filipinos seem to be very united in wanting tourism to succeed… so far, the many attempts have just been misguided.

          • You might be surprised that Alberto Lim is on record as favoring a few well-heeled tourists to many backpackers. He’d rather have the Conde Nast-type of tourist rather than the Lonely Planet type.

  90. I haven’t seen it yet, but hearing about it is just plain sad. Very poor choice for a name.

    I personally like the logo and the phrase but not in Tagalog!!!!! Geez.

    As for the misspellings and content on the site….that is not lost Bob. You know that. The files for that site are not lost so it was not a complete waste of time. The changes to the site and even the name can be made very easily.

    It is really hard to understand how the DoT thought that name was good in Tagalog. Incredible actually.

    Again though, your constant bashing of this new administration is a bit hard to understand. It has been FIVE months since they came into office….all is not lost Bob. LOL.

    I think the DoT made a big mistake with some of this campaign, but the changes can be made so easily. They just need to get the site changed and the issues with the site (from what you have said) could be changed within one day.

    Now they need to SEO the heck out of that site and get the name onto every network overseas, in every magazine, and on the minds of every travel agent in the world. But then that is just the beginning.

    • I am not constantly bashing the administration. I praise new President when he deserves it, and I point out mistakes when I see them.

      You like the logo… problem is, it is pirated from Poland! It’s almost a direct replica of their tourism logo, and yesterday the Philippine DoT admitted that they stole it from Poland, saying that “Poland had no copyright”! Can you imagine!

      Yes, it was wasted effort, Todd. A lot of waste of man hours and such, and the entire campaign is being ditched because it is so poor, and much of it is stolen from others.

    • “It is really hard to understand how the DoT thought that name was good in Tagalog. Incredible actually.”

      Todd, I’d actually have been more surprised had DOT done it right. DOT did it right with Wow! Philippines ONLY because Richard Gordon headed the DOT then. But a Gordon comes rarely, like a comet coming to within a million miles of earth.

      The rest of the time, DOT’s a desert!

  91. It is also STUNNING that they did not get the English version of the domain Pilipinas Kay Ganda locked up. At least the .com version. PhilippineSoBeautiful.com or TheBeautifulPhilippines.com.

    Sorta shocking.

      • Well I am happy you own it, I know this is a really personal question and I know you probably will not tell any of us ( I wouldn’t either) but with the prices I see on some of those domain names I am assuming that you have been offered some really high prices.

        I just wonder if you really think that anyone is going to buy those for those prices…I really hope for your sake you are able to sell them. Getting domains like that can be REALLY profitable.

        • Hi Todd – Indeed, in the past I have been offered some pretty good money for some of my domain names. So far, I have always turned down the offers, though. I have a few I would like to sell if the price is right, but the names that I own that I consider really premier names… I’m keeping them.

  92. …yeah!…and i guess …to be fair with…i suggest mr. martin should do his writing both in filipino and in english…not all filipinoes can understand and write english fluently…hws dat?…tell mr.martin i am so sorry for being so rude to him…that is true,i haven’t met him yet in personally and i have no idea of his concern for millions of filipinoes…i am not judging him…what happened was purely a “spur of the moment ‘…and i am sorry for it…i think i have learned my lesson so well…so i guess i must be careful next time…but i’ll still keep on reading Mr. Martin ESSAY…i like his writing style…god bless!

    • Constantino- posting things on the ” spur of the moment ” is something I have also done myself- and sometimes regretted it ! lol If you will read the posts and keep an open mind I think that you will find that most people on this web site really do have the best interest of the Philippines and the filipinos at heart . I do appreciate that there are some sites where many of the people have nothing good to say about the Philippines- but this is not one of them.
      And please dont just read the posts here- I would like to hear your comments also !

  96. …well taken sir…so hws you doin’?…no more bad impression about me…i’m sorry,..i really like your writing syte…i am your big fan when it comes to writing you know..have a good day sir,…god bless!

      • Bob, I think the people behind it come to their senses. lol. the problem with this people is that, they rush everything to give the people result, however, everything they have done is not well thought out, more often than not, it always lead to disaster!.

        I think PNoy must find people who knows how to use the “jelly” thing inside their skull.

        • Dans, you’re making a BIG assumption there, that P-Noy’s people have something between their ears. I suspect many have none.

    • The *&%$#@ PKG wasted P712,790.00 before kicking the bucket. This I got from a Bobit Avila of Phil Star column:

      “In his resignation letter, Romano still insisted that the Pilipinas Kay Ganda ad was a “work in progress” that it wasn’t final. Well I just received a DoT receipt of the cost of the rebranding program which amounted to Php712,790.00. On the invitations alone, the DoT spent Php48,000 and P46,000 on car stickers alone, even a mobilization fund of P60,000 and P70,000 for pyro effects, then a supplementary budget for P398,435 of which P356,000 was for additional graphics alone. All this for a temporary launching?”

  98. OK, I understand, Constantino. I am glad you enjoy reading what I write. I just want you to know that I do things to contribute to the country – a lot of things. One of my biggest activities is that every year on December 24, we go out in the bukid and distribute thousands of dollars worth of Christmas presents to the needy people (people that we don’t even know). Each year, money is contributed for this by my readers. So, yes, I do things to help Filipinos.

  102. @Jalil: What we are suggesting as rule of thumb in discussions – stick to issues, not personal attacks.. We will always have differences in opinions… but we can agree to disagree.

  104. Having read all the replies so far to this post maybe we should just allow the Philippine Department of Tourism to do their own thing. Sometimes bad publicity is just as effective as good publicity. There is, our way their way and no way. And the person who never made a mistake never made anything. Just maybe lessons have beeen learned from this exercise and the future will look brighter given time.

    • Hi Jim – I don’t think we have any hope of telling the DoT what to do anyway… we are all just expressing our opinions and thoughts. I personally see nothing wrong with that. The DoT is always free to do their own thing, and I doubt that they even read this anyway. 😆

      • The DOT is a bunch of amateurs, just like many in the Aquino administration are rank amateurs.

        Look, we Filipinos not too long ago dazzled the whole world with our singular display of sheer amateurism in that botched Quirino grandstand “rescue.” We regaled the world with our country’s answer to the German GSG 9, or the U.S. Navy SEAL.

        On its heels came Mai Mislang’s faux pas–imagine complaining on Twitter about the dearth of good-looking guys in Vietnam, and lamenting her 50-50 chance of surviving crossing Vietnames streets, not to mention calling into question the Vietnamese taste on wine!

        Rank amateurs! It’s good Usec Romero resigned. Sec Lim should have resigned ahead of him. Amateurs.

  106. Attacking anyone is another story…

    In every manipulative TRUTH that seems to be TRUE but behind of it are all LIES. There are people always protecting and searching for the real TRUTH.

    In the Phillipine society, there are LOTs of Manipulative TRUTH where mostly filipinos are blinded….that kept them mostly FILIPINOS poor…

    If there is no one against the corrupt system, you are right, Philippines will be in the gutter.

    It is not all the time people will just remain stand still…time comes ONE voice will do the highers steps…

  107. …actually,…the articulateness of Mr.Martin’s writing is my point of view here…well explained and understable…i just like his style in writing that’s all… i really hate what happened but it was to be that way in order for me to get the other side of Sir Martin…all i can say is…keep up the good works…there’s a lot of things to be shape up in this corrupt country and i agree with you guys…god bless!

    • Uh, Constantino, pardon me, but do you really have to say “God bless” after every sentence?

      Makes me curious, especially the way yiou capitalize Bob’s name, but keep God’s to lower case.

  108. …oh! by the way…the controversial…”PILIPINAS KAY GANDA- LOGO” is being scrapped and Manny Pacquiao was being eyed as a replacement for the new LOGO proposed by the department of tourism…will it help rebuild our nation’s bad image abroad?…just asking,…

  110. There are other personalities aside Manny…He must be just one of the ambassadors of promoting tourism…Let us avoid also just to only coin the Philippines “BOXING CAPITAL OF WORLD” Let us consider others who contributed better….such as the OFWs…charice, arnel,

  114. Apparently they decided not to reactivate the old site while working on the new one. The old site comes up to what appears to be a MS Share Point login page.

  115. mao gyud, pnoy’s “student council” needs to take tourism advice from expats like you guys. billy esposo of the phil star has an expat friend who was an advertising bigwig back in the day and the honcho suggested bringing back the 70s-era tagline, “Philippines, where Asia wears a smile.”

    DOT could even adopt the eraserheads’ local hit, “With a Smile” as the official jingle to match. the janggly-guitars-with-‘too-do-do-doo’ chorus should make this campaign as memorable as NZ’s use of the global Crowded House hit song in their ‘100% Natural’ NZ tourism campaign.

    • Hi pinoy browser – I like that slogan, “Philippines, where Asia wears a smile.” In fact, if that was the slogan back in the 70’s it can be a kind of retro campaign, which would add to it’s popularity, IMHO. Thanks for sharing!

      • The only problem with that, Bob, is that Spain has beaten us to the “smile” tagline– won’t be good to have more than one to a tagline.

        • But you’re right> “Smile” would have been a natural for the Philippines. Did you know that in Singapore the government actually had a campaign to get Singaporeans to smile? Incredible! But it’s true. Posters and signs everywhere reminding people to smile.

          Why, in the Philippines, people smile even while facing possible death, as EDSA Revolution pictures would show.

          Crazy people, we Filipinos.

      • That was rather terse, wasn’t it? An national slogan for tourism in a regional language leaves out too much of the country. Years ago, there was a movement by Cebuano speakers for independence. Gov. Garcia even supported it. There was even a book “A country of our own.” I have no idea if the movement still has any steam. But sometimes I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea.

  117. Hi Bob, I just learned from the news that DoT spent almost P 5M for the launch of “Pilipinas Kay Ganda”!!! What a waste!!!

    • And to think that Alberto Lim of the Makati Business Club heads DOT now. But look at what he has done. He has not been able to spot a potential embarrassment. Not only that, he allowed his undersecretary to take the fall when he, as the boss-man of DOT, by command responsibility, should have been the first to offer his resignation. Talk about honor. Lim doesn’t have it.

  118. By the way, guys, here’s how other countries have done it:

    (Credit: Fiona Cullinan)

    Brazil Sensational!
    Incredible India
    Cool Japan
    Uniquely Singapore
    Amazing Thailand
    1 Malaysia
    Albania A New Mediterranean
    Anguilla Feeling is Believing
    Aruba One Happy Island
    Belize Mother Nature’s Best Kept Secret
    California Find Yourself Here
    Canada Keep Exploring
    Croatia The Mediterranean As it Once Was
    Ecuador Life at its Purest
    Viva Cuba
    Egypt Where It All Begins
    El Salvador Impressive!
    Visit Finland Breathe
    Visit Florida
    Florida Keys Come As You Are
    France Rendez-Vouse En France
    Germany Affordable Hospitality
    Grenada Rhythms of Spice
    Hong Kong Best Place Best Taste
    Hungary A Love for Life
    I heart New York
    Indonesia Admit It You Love It
    Italy Much More
    Jamaica Once You Go, You Know
    See the world. Visit London
    1 Malaysia
    Maldives Sunny Side of Life
    Montenegro Wild Beauty
    Namibia Land of Contrasts
    New Zealand 100% Pure
    Romania Land of Choice
    Discover Peru
    WOW Philippines
    Slovakia Little Big Country
    Slovenia I Feel Love
    Smile! You are in Spain
    Switzerland Get Natural
    Taiwan Touch Your Heart
    Tanzania Land of Kilimanjaro Zanzibar and the Serengeti
    Texas (visual representation of ‘Everything’s bigger in Texas’ – I think)