DOT chief: People power to boost tourist arrivals

PILI, Camarines Sur—In the age of new media and world teen idol Justin Bieber, “game change” has become the buzzword among advertising industry leaders, movers and shakers participating in the 22nd Philippine Ad Congress here.

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr., who keynoted the biennial event at the Camarines Sur Convention Center, tweaked on people power and gave it a new flavor to drive home the new thrusts of the tourism industry under the Aquino administration.

Summoning people power is a game-changing strategy to push tourist arrivals in the Philippines amid stiff competition from its Asian neighbors,  Jimenez said.

He said infrastructure was not the main drawer of tourists, but the welcoming people and beautiful scenery that the country could offer. “The priority is to prepare our people to welcome tourists because our beautiful sites are (there) already,” he said.

Tourism infrastructure was not lacking, “but it’s more our readiness to accept visitors,” Jimenez told journalists.

Noting that the platforms have changed, he said the Philippines must tap social network resources to promote tourism. He cited model Bessie Badilla and her Facebook site “Come Visit My Philippines” (CVMP) that, he said, had already listed some 27,000 member-users all over the world.

“Imagine some 25 million Filipinos on Facebook starting the same initiative,” Jimenez said.

Held for the first time in Bicol at the CamSur Watersports Complex (CWC), the congress will run until Saturday with the theme “Changing the Game.”

Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez, president and CEO of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), noted that the landscape had continually and dramatically changed in the ad industry.

“To stay in the game, we can no longer play by the same rules.  So it’s either we let the game change us, or we change the game,” she said in a speech officially opening this year’s congress as its president.

Rizal, apl.de.ap

Romualdez compared the moves made by national hero Jose Rizal during his time and Fil-Am singer  apl.de.ap at present to illustrate the kind of transformation the advertising industry players had to make in illustrating what “game changing” means for them.

While extolling Rizal who finished his first literary work “Noli Me Tangere” that exposed the cruelty and corruption of the Spanish regime in 1886, she asked her audience to give a hearty applause to apl.de.ap of the world-renowned R & B group Black Eyed Peas as an example of a present-day “game-changer.”

The rapper, a native of Pampanga province who made a name in the international recording scene by infusing the spirit of Filipino pop music into his group’s songs distributed worldwide, delivered a video message for the congress participants, which basically encouraged them to make use of their strengths and to think out-of-the-box.

Romualdez said that changing the game didn’t just mean a marketing stunt. In reality, it is “pushing for change results sometimes in violent deaths, shattered dreams, and abandonment of children,” she said.

“Like Rizal, a journalist sometimes has to sacrifice his own life to bring us the truth. Sadly, in the Philippines, we have been cited as the most dangerous place for journalists to work in,” Romualdez said.

Orphans of journalists

She noted that 155 journalists nationwide had been killed for the past 10 years in their pursuit of truth and justice that left over 300 children orphans. She made a pitch to raise funds for the education of these orphans, with the initial amount coming from part of the proceeds of the Ad Congress.

Romualdez reiterated the advocacy of the Advertising Board of the Philippines (AdBoard) to hold a congress outside of Manila to support local tourism.

“We need to discover new places in our own country. This is the time when we need to shake up the status quo in as much as we are often shaken up by the speed of technology shifts in our business,” she said.

Branding campaign

Jimenez said that before the yearend, the Department of Tourism (DOT) would start a branding campaign among Filipinos so that they themselves could start their own tourism initiatives.

Jimenez reiterated that the strategy through people power to promote tourism would generally be through the social media, but he declined to reveal more details, saying “the competitors are listening.”

People power and social media are the best tools to promote the Philippines because these are to the Filipinos’ advantage, he said.

‘Irreversible’

He estimated that tourism arrivals would hit 3.8 million at the end of the year and breach the 4-million mark by 2012. The challenge right now in the tourism industry is how to maintain the momentum of business, he said.

Speaking before congress delegates over lunch sponsored by the PDI, Marixi Rufino-Prieto, the company’s chairperson, said welcoming the “irreversible” advances in technology was the way to succeed.

“After all, the reason for the Inquirer’s existence is simply for this purpose—to set the agenda and be a catalyst for change,” she said.

Prieto said the same sense of purpose should be shared by everyone in the advertising industry.  “In our business of news and information, it is only natural to put the welfare of society foremost in our daily work. We provide Filipinos a way to be informed in whatever platform possible,” she said.

“We satisfy their need to know but we go beyond that with a heightened sense of social responsibility as we empower them to be heard and to inspire action.”

Digital platforms

Romualdez said that part of pushing the game-changing idea in the Ad Congress was the use of digital platforms, which, she added, made this year’s staging the most wired, including the use of social media and other technology tools to heighten audience interaction and engage and elicit immediate feedback through a polling system.

Andre Kahn, chairman of AdBoard, announced the new protocol of accepting new members of the AdBoard to embrace “marketing communications” as a concept distinct from the old “advertising industry” concept.

Kahn cited the selection of CWC as the first game-changing move of the board. New structures have been built in the open venue to accommodate the activities of the four-day event.

“CamSur, the most improved province, suits our theme. Now that we are here we can feel it,” he said.

During the opening rites, there was a fast-pace projection of Camarines Sur’s transformation from a poor place to an extreme sports destination.

The Maasinhon Trio, ABS-CBN’s Pilipinas Got Talent Season 3 grand winner, sang the national anthem “Lupang Hinirang.” The parade of colors of the participating ad agencies followed to toast the hurdles they faced in meeting the challenges posed by the digital age to the ad industry. With reports from Jonas Cabiles Soltes and Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon