‘The challenge is to go beyond the wow’ — DoT

By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

THE DEPARTMENT of Tourism (DoT) is targeting 12 million tourists arrivals per year by 2022. To achieve this, the department plans on providing package tours that are more cohesive and a campaign slogan that speaks both to millennials and to older markets.

“The challenge is to go beyond the ‘wow.’ It’s not just selling the sites, but it’s all about the experience,” said DoT Assistant Secretary, Alma Rita D. Jimenez on Nov. 8 at the third Region IV-A travel summit held in Taal Vista Tagaytay.

She said a good marketing strategy should talk directly to its target niches. “Bigyan ng story na mas cohesive [Give a more cohesive story]. [For example, we should] identify all the diving spots in the Philippines and market them as one. What are the world-class festivities we have? Can we tie them up under the Faith Tourism? We are trying to inject a fresh perspective and look at what our markets want. We want to look at our market separately and how they can be bundled and marketed very well,” she said.

The idea of a target market is one that brings in repeat business. “[We should] align our programs so we offer a compelling narrative about an experience and then create return business,” she said.

For instance, all the diving spots in the Philippines — including Anilao in Batangas, Puerto Galera in Mindoro, Apo Island in Negros, Ticao Pass in Masbate, among many others — should be marketed together so the visitors target going to each destination as if they are collecting stamps.

“We shouldn’t want to be like millennials, na isang beses ka lang pinuntahan at di ka na babalikan kasi marami pang countries ang gusto nila (who are satisfied with a one-time visit because they have other countries they want to go to). But by targeting a niche we can capture their passion, then, they will have a list and collect each destination,” she added.

But in order to have a repeat business, she said our tourist destinations should appeal to local markets first. “We want domestic tourism. Fix your domestic destinations to appeal to locals because kailangan magustuhan ng Filipino [Filipinos should like them] because they have discriminating taste. Kapag ’di gusto maririnig mo ’yan sa social media [If they don’t like them, you will hear it on social media]. They will post and upload [photos]. They will be our ambassadors. If they like it they will upload it makikita ’yan ng daigdig tapos pupunta sila dito [and the world will see it and then they will come here].

She added, “After all, the domestic is our constant market. We rely on our domestic tourists to stabilize the numbers all throughout.”

Targeting return business not only means fixing package tours but also speaking to various audiences. There is also the importance of classifying age groups, especially when your slogan seems to speak to one clique only.

“[The former slogan] ‘It’s More Fun’ seemed to target millennials. Thirty percent to 40% of our tourists are millennials but the remaining 25% to 30% and growing are the silver market or those retiring. I am sure they will not indulge in extreme activity. We must target them, too. What are the relaxing and laidback [tourist destinations we have]? It has to be like Bali [in Indonesia], you can just lie back and watch the beach and waterfalls. We want to highlight that we want to have laidback, which are friendly to the disabled and silver market,” she said in a mix of English and the vernacular.