On the celebration of the golden year of the Department of Tourism (DOT), President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., together with Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco and other officials, led the unveiling of the country’s enhanced tourism campaign “Love the Philippines” as the highlight of the Department’s 50th founding year celebration at the iconic Manila Hotel, Tuesday (June 27)
Proudly presenting “Love the Philippines” to a crowd composed of former DOT chiefs, officials and employees of the Department’s central and regional offices, heads of government agencies including Cabinet Secretaries, house representatives, tourism stakeholders, and the media, Secretary Frasco described the enhanced campaign as timely for the DOT’s golden anniversary celebration.
PBBM’s unequivocal support
Gracing the milestone event for Philippine tourism, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. expressed his utmost support for “Love the Philippines”, saying that the enhanced tourism campaign “springs from the genuine love that you, me, and all of us have for the Philippines.”
Adjusting to the post-pandemic tourism landscape and changing trends
With the everchanging global tourism landscape post pandemic, and the growing desire of travelers for more immersive experiences in their travels, the DOT viewed the enhanced brand as a timely response to the demands of the industry.
In a recent survey conducted by the United Nations World Travel Organization (UNWTO) among its member countries, market repositioning and rebranding strategies is among the priorities identified after the pandemic based on its Survey Findings on Member Priorities for UNWTO program of work 2024-2025.
With an enhanced tourism campaign in tow, the DOT’s focus now is to show more of what there is to “Love the Philippines” as it works towards the realization of President Marcos, Jr.’s vision for the country to become a tourism powerhouse in Asia.
Rosy prospects for Philippine tourism
According to Secretary Frasco, the world has “the world has noticed that there is so much to love about the Philippines.”
This, as the Philippines has recorded 2,641,993 visitors from January 1 to June 26, 2023, and is close to breaching the 2.65 million arrivals it recorded for 2022.
Further, the tourism sector is regarded as a stalwart as far as contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) is concerned. According to the 2022 Philippine Tourism Satellite Accounts (PTSA) for 2022, the Tourism Direct Gross Value Added (TDGVA) share of the sector to the Philippine economy, as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), was estimated at 6.2 percent and amounted to PHP 1.38 trillion in 2022.
The Philippines is also seeing a boost in tourism-related enterprise employment, with 5.35 million estimated tourism employment last year.
