LESSON 2.

TOURISM MARKETING (SEÑORIN)

Imagine waking up one morning from the sound of birds at your windowsill, the morning
lights seeps through the shade of your bed hangings while you luxuriously feel the warm white
sheets of your ultra-soft bed. The smell of freshly ground coffee and pancakes drift in the air as
breakfast was ordered straight from the kitchen to your room. You went outside the balcony of
your room and were amazed by the great scenery of lush, blue ocean and green and beautiful
nature that greets your sight. The air was perfumed by the scent of pines and coconut trees leaving you
to gasp for more fresh air as you bathed in the great feeling of happiness and
contentment for a while.

The following event that just being described here is what a vacation could be really like to some of us-
sounds a bit dreamy and heaven-like but those things would not materialize out of sheer luck and
random moments. Every part of that dream vacation and special moments you wish to experience in a
vacation all came from hard, extensive and carefully planned research and innovation in the world of
marketing and tourism management.

The Role of ASEAN MRA TP in the tourism industry (SEÑORIN)

With the thriving tourism economic growth both experience by the Philippines and other neighbouring
Asian countries that the demand for tourism studies is vastly needed in the near future, the ASEAN
Mutual Recognition Arrangement for Tourism Professionals(ASEAN MRA TP) which was implemented by
the Department of Tourism of the Philippines last October 2012. This arrangement promises the
mobility of skilled tourism labour of our country to be recognized and be certified as true professionals
in the different skills that they possess as needed in the various tourism sectors, however before any
candidate could be certified, certain skills and requirements should be fulfilled first and pass. In effect,
the arrangement could produce world class talent in our country and will enable them to find more jobs
not only in our own country but also in any ASEAN member state. This particular arrangement promises
an abundant future in the tourism industry, thus the creation of more work forces that would sustain
the demand for the future in the tourism industry.
What is tourism marketing? ( BENEDICTO )

It is a term which is used to refer to that business discipline by which the visitors are attracted to a
particular location which can be a state, a city, a particular heritage site or tourist destination, spot, a
hotel or a convention centre. Tourism marketing drives business growth. If customers are satisfied with
your services, they'll spread the world about your facility, whether it's a local pub or a hotel. This will
bring you more clients and give you a competitive edge.

What are the characteristics of tourism marketing? (BENEDICTO)

They are, (a) Intangibility ie. Cannot be touched are viewed, (b) Inseparability of Production and
consumption, (c) Perishability, ie. unused capacity cannot be stored for future use, (d) Heterogeneity
(Variability) ie. Services involve people, and people are all different.Perhaps you have seen a TV
commercial depicting the Philippines in its glorious form, all warm and beautiful with its white sand
beaches, green mountains and a lush tropical forest. You might even catch the festive side of the people
with different costumes and celebration for every town (fiesta, as it is often called). Seeing those
advertisements makes you become a proud Filipino. You might be surprised as well to find out that
Philippines has so much to offer and we can really compete among other countries as one of the
beautiful vacation spots, and all of that information are being squeezed and summed up in a whole
thirty second television commercial.
Analyzing the marketing process on a successful tourism campaign. (SILVA, 1,2,3,4,5 ))

The plan was simple and that is to attract 10 million tourists by the end of 2016. The Department of
Tourism created the “It’s more fun in the Philippines” ad campaign. The campaign was so effective that
it landed third among the top 100 campaign of the world launched in 2012. The goal is to simply attract
visitors from around the world and unite the Filipino people on the positivity of the message and
created tagline.

Now, let’s incorporate the tourism marketing and analyse the process that takes place in the campaign:

1. Segmenting- tourists among the possible five continents of the world.

2. Profiling- tourists who are capable of travelling and may perhaps enjoy a different or exotic location,
someone who’s into a tropical climate.

3. Targeting (What is PTM)– tourists who are on their prime years, age ranges from early 20’s to 50’s,
backpackers who’s looking for an adventure with a group, holidaying family who’s looking for a sunny
beach paradise, and probably the young professional (yuppies) with disposable income who’s looking for
a tropical local party scene.

4. Consumer insighting- is an interpretation used by businesses to gain a deeper understanding of how

their audience thinks and feels. Analysing human behaviours allows companies to really understand
what their consumers want and need, and most importantly, why they feel this way. “Filipino pride
sells”, this is the foundation of the campaign, believing that the social relevance of the Filipino warmth
displays the whole country ideology of promotion. Different Asian countries use a marketing slogan
which is very observational like “Amazing Thailand”, “Incredible India” and “Malaysia truly Asia".“It’s
more fun in the Philippines” is very inclusive, with the help of social media; the campaign was anchored
with the Filipino values of being the happiest and warmest people in the word. Also as the rapid growth
of social media and the internet, the need for pushing through this platform is also consideration on the
whole marketing campaign.

5. Value offering (USP)- the Unique Selling Proposition on this campaign is the inclusiveness of the
people in the whole campaign, given that the slogan itself involves the “we” part, the department of
tourism wanted to involve the whole nation in campaigning for the Philippines as one of the most best
travel destination in the world, using the common masses in proclaiming the message, the buzz quickly
travels even on its first two hours of unveiling in twitter and other social media networks. The
Philippines who ranked first as the social media capital of the world quickly pushes the campaign just by
involving any individual who can share the message of “It’s more fun in the Philippines”.

( TALLO, 6,7,a,b,c )
6. Product design/Conceptualization- like any other projects and ideas, the campaign for “It’s more fun
in the Philippines” encounter many challenges before resulting to greatness. The alleged duplication of
the campaign slogan which was claimed by Switzerland during the 1960’s, the campaign product design
is centred directly to the people by empowering them to become part of the strategy. The
conceptualization of the design is centred on the people itself, creating different scenarios for the slogan
to materialize and correlate to the trends of time, even the logo is crafted just like the pixelated
traditional banig, a hand-woven product that is used for sleeping or sitting- it reflects the country’s rich
colourful history, its traditions and aspirations. The logo as well was created just like digital pixel of a
computer graphics, to represent the future and modernity of the current times.

7. Product development

a. Packaging- using bright and festive pallete, the campaign overall design is somehow exudes
playfulness and activeness to its viewers, matched and coordinated with modern design layout.

b. Product- using the internet for its web campaigns and web videos, the social media for its wide reach
and users, travel trade marketing for its direct partners in the travel industry, media and public relations
for press releases and articles and thirty second television advertisments.

c. Branding- by integrating the whole campaign on its slogan “It’s more fun in the Philippines” is a direct
representation on what the campaign is all about, from the flyers that they’re distributing, the billboards
and everything is integrated to the core values of the product which is the Philippines, and thus,
represented by the chosen slogan.

8. Brand positioning (TANUDRA)

a. Pricing- one of the aims of the campaign is to increase the revenue of tourism in our country, and one
means to invite tourists by means of a powerful campaign. Therefore, the Department of Tourism tie up
with different travel agencies in promoting its campaign also encouraging the airline industry to offer
affordable packages and bundle trips around the country with assorted place visitation within the
country.

b. Placement- the campaign focused its marketing strategy heavily on social media. Thegood placement
of using social media as platform to the campaign pushes the marketing anywhere in the world as long
as the internet is available.

c. Promotion- the different promotional mixes where used in these campaigns such as:

► Personal selling- the power of word of mouth prevails in this campaign; using common people to
spread the word of the campaign may it be by verbal transfer or by social media.

► Online- just like personal selling, the average Filipino internet user get their chance to share the
campaign throughout their online community either by tweeting the marketing material by sharing
through Facebook.

► Digital- the campaign also runs a YouTube video version of their television commercial, exceeding the
thirty second limit on TV ads. This shows the full power of the campaign without the restriction of time.
The YouTube video proves a big hit reaching almost ten (10) million views to count as of 2016 and still
continues to run even up to now.

► Tri-Media- the television commercial, radio ads and billboards also hook up the campaign with its
traditional viewers. This platform performs equally as online because it caters to the viewers who has no
internet and prefers to see their advertisement on the traditional way.

► Sales promotion- the campaign was also incorporated first handedly to the tourism force who will be
the frontiers of the new promotional message, it means that from the flight attendant, to the airport
personnel, to the taxi drivers, to the local boat driver, the tour guides and to the common Filipino
people or any other individual are given the task to promote its message.

► Public relations- promotional articles written on newspapers, magazines or even online blogs also are
key to the success of the campaign. The power of online blogs also shows empowerment to the
campaign because now, you don’t need to become a journalist just to express your feeling in writing
because of blogs.

► Direct marketing- applies to the direct sector of the frontiers of tourism which are the travel agencies
by tying up with the airline companies that offer multiple and bundle destination packages that would
encourage tourist to have a one shot in visiting many local destinations at an affordable rate or price.