The Department of Tourism’s new campaign slogan and logo
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism (DOT) on Thursday boasted that almost 900 local governments have incorporated the controversial “Love the Philippines” slogan into their own local tourism programs.
Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said they expect more municipalities, cities and provinces to adopt the campaign, saying the results they have so far gotten proved that “that if we love our country, we will herald the best of the best of our destinations”
“To love the Philippines is to ask the difficult questions, to try to understand what we can do to introduce difficult but helpful solutions to programs and projects that have never been done before, but are being implemented now as our response to global tourism trends,” she said during the Philippine Tour Operators Association general meeting.
Frasco said the 900 local governments and stakeholders that have adopted the new slogan “expressed this deep love for the Philippines” and urged them to use the slogan in whatever way it can fit into their own local style of tourism.
“We love our country. We all love the Philippines. And it is this deep love for our country that will propel us and give us the daring to say that the Philippines deserves a much more primary position in Asia and the world as a tourism powerhouse,” she said.
This came just a month after the DOT’s new slogan “Love The Philippines” drew controversy, particularly after its promotional video was found to have used stock footage from other countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Switzerland and United Arab Emirates.
The DOT’s ad agency Doyle, Dane and Bernbach (DDB Group Philippines) which made the promotional video admitted the mistake and was eventually fired. However, Frasco opted to stand by the new slogan despite the controversial promotional video and has since been promoting different tourist spots in the country flaunting the new slogan.
The controversy also did not stop the Philippines from hitting the three million international visitor mark just in the first half of the year and generating P212.5 billion in tourist receipts, according to the DOT’s data.
The top five countries that were the major source of foreign visitors for the first half of the year were South Korea, the United States, Australia, Japan, and Canada.