A Progressive Philippine Tourism

In a closed door forum held with select members of media, newly installed Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez shared his marching orders from the President.

The Chief Executive ordered that the gains of the tourism industry be made inclusive, or one whose gains trickle down to even the most marginalized sectors of society. Jimenez did the math and according to his calculations, it would take 10 million visitors, minimum, to achieve the President’s wishes.

With our 3.3 million visitors last year, the industry pumped $22.5 billion into the economy, comprising six percent of GDP. Jimenez needs to increase this to 15 percent by 2016 to make its benefits inclusive.

Ten million visitors is 3.6 million more than what his predecessor Bertie Lim originally planned, and 6.7 million away from our total arrivals last year. To pull this off, Jimenez needs to boost arrivals by as much as 20 percent a year for five years. Not an easy feat, considering it took Thailand 14 years to get from three to 10 million tourists, and Malaysia, 15 years.

Still, the entrepreneur-turned-cabinet secretary is determined—in fact, even optimistic. He is off to a good start as the country is poised to surpass its 3.6 million arrival target this year and breach the four million mark barring any untoward event.

But it’s an uphill battle considering the meager resources at Jimenez’ disposal. DOT’s global promotions budget for 2011 merely equals what Malaysia is spending in Hong Kong alone. This requires Jimenez to “work smart” and “spend smart.”

On the organizational front, he has already re-aligned DOT’s promotional clusters (management groups focused on promoting the Philippines in particular markets) putting bias on emerging markets like China, India, and to some extent, Russia.

Established markets like Japan, Korea and the U.S. have been allotted less management resources due to their moderate growth trajectories. On the budgetary side, Jimenez intends to spend on a mix of traditional advertising and a cache of ingenious guerilla marketing tactics to get the most bang for the buck.

I wondered if Jimenez was feeding the people another pipe dream given the fondness of some government agencies to over-state their targets and under-deliver on the results. Jimenez was honest enough to say that the 10 million target will only be a pipe dream if the DOT were to do it on its own. He stressed, however, that there is a strong fighting chance to achieve it if the citizenry plays an active role in the effort. No surprise that his marketing strategies have a huge civil society component in them.

While he remained mum about the country’s new tourism slogan, he did reveal some examples of guerilla tactics that harness the power of the people. If anything, this should give us an idea of his train of thought and what we can expect from our marketing-savvy Secretary.

The Internet

The Internet is “the great qualizer,” the medium that obliterates the power of advertising dollars by allowing everyone, rich and poor alike, to get their message out there at practically no cost. What Jimenez lacks in financial resources, he intends to make up for by harnessing the power of the World Wide Web.

He was emphatic about the Internet’s role in his strategic plan, particularly the use of social media networks and the Filipino’s proclivity for spending countless hours on-line. The Secretary revealed his intention of turning every Filipino into brand ambassadors for Philippine Tourism. Done right, this could potentially be the country’s most powerful advertising medium—considering there are 28.72 million Filipinos registered on Facebook alone (representing 30 percent of our entire population, and the 8th largest ethnic group in the FB community) and 4.01 million on Twitter. Together, they have the potential to touch over a billion “contacts”.

The Philippines in the World Sporting Circuit

A number of sporting associations hold their tournaments in various places around the world as part of their qualifying heats. Formula 1, The World Rally Championships, and The Ironman Challenge are popular examples of these. Jimenez intends to make the Philippines a part of the sporting circuit for games that require tropical terrain like motocross, surfing and triathlon events.

Apart from attracting the participants, crew and spectators, the international complexion of these meets and the publicity they generate serve as ideal platforms to present the country in a new and desirable light. The country stands to gain excellent media values for a relatively small investment.

Community participation is a crucial element to this tactic. The DOT will be working closely with LGUs and the local communities to mount these events and “wow” our visitors with Filipino-style hospitality.

A Culture of Salesmanship

Local travelers account for more than 70 percent of the industry’s revenues. While more Filipinos travel domestically today then ever before, many still miss the opportunity to use this as selling leverages to woo visitors in. Jimenez wants to change that by inculcating a culture of salesmanship.

He cited the example of Spain and how every Spaniard talks relentlessly about the beauty of his country to anyone willing to listen. The Spanish people are, in effect, walking billboards for their tourism industry.

Like us, it wasn’t long ago that Spain was a country beset with travel advisories warning potential visitors of social unrest and crime. The number of visitors that visited the country was a mere fraction of what its neighbors to the north (France) and to the east (Italy) got. Today, they are the fourth most visited country in the world, with arrivals of 52.68 million a year thanks to the concerted effort of its people. All this was achieved in less than a generation.

Jimenez thinks a quantum leap for Philippine tourism can be achieved if everyone plays a part in the selling effort, most especially our 11 million OFWs who are present in every corner of the globe.

The Game Plan

Judging from the three examples cited by the Secretary, it is clear that his game plan is to tap the infinite power of the people to augment his finite advertising budget. A genius move that none of his predecessors have done!

When you consider that he is drawing upon the same bastion of strength that toppled a dictator and made the country a beacon of democracy in the developing world, the idea of transforming the country from tourism underachiever to rock star status is not so far fetched.

Source - mb.com.ph