It Is More Fun in the Philippines

"It's More Fun in the Philippines": A Study on the Use of Social Media in Promoting Philippine Tourism

This study aimed to document the production of the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) new international tourism campaign tagline “It’s more fun in the Philippines” and to explore the factors behind the Agency’s decision to tap the Social Media as its primary vehicle in promoting Philippine tourism through the new campaign slogan. The study likewise assessed the effectiveness of the new media strategy in reaching its target market – foreign tourists. Open-ended interview guides were used in securing information from DOT and the Ad Firm responsible for the development of the new tourism campaign. A one-page structured-survey questionnaire was used particularly in generating feedback from foreign tourists on their awareness and perception of the new tourism promotion tagline “It’s more fun in the Philippines.”

A narration of the circumstances and process in the production of the new tourism campaign was made, together with an enumeration of the primary reasons behind the choice of the social media as the platform and channel in waging the new tourism campaign. The survey results showed that the Internet ranks Number 1 as a source of information on general matters and is a close second to friends, relatives and co-workers as the source of information that influenced the decision of foreign tourists to come to the Philippines. Quizzed and presented the current and the four other past tourism campaign taglines to determine their awareness of the present campaign, 47% of the foreign respondents accurately identified “It’s more fun in the Philippines” as the current tagline. The respondents likewise rated the current tourism tagline as “highly acceptable” on its appeal, capacity to attract interest, reasonableness, realism, recall facility, and its capacity to be understood. Finally, the use of the Internet social media as the launching pad and channel for the campaign may be considered effective on the grounds that about 50% of the foreign respondents were aware of the new campaign slogan, and that 33% got their information from the Internet. The reach of the campaign in a very short period was already very encouraging.

It is recommended that the DOT extend or make its own survey if only to determine the number of foreign tourists who are attracted to come to the Philippines on account of the new tourism tagline “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” There is also a need to customize a language translation service in the DOT website to make the campaign more virally far reaching.

Adan, M. (2012). “It’s More Fun in the Philippines”: A Study on the Use of Social Media in Promoting Philippine Tourism, Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

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Keywords: tourism, campaign, DOT, social media, effectiveness