DOT highlights collaboration in tourism marketing drive

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism (DOT) emphasized the importance of a collaborative effort by all tourism stakeholders in marketing the country, as it recently held a summit that brought together representatives from the public and private sectors.

“The recent 5th Philippine Tourism Forum Tourism Officers – Tour Operators (TO-TO) Summit underscored the vital role of partnership marketing between tourism officers and tour operators in addressing the changing market environment which challenges the creativity, innovation and resiliency of the tourism industry,” the DOT said.

It added that over 300 representatives from all of the country’s regions attended the summit.

“The event rallied the pillars of the tourism industry to join forces in partnership marketing by engaging in more proactive collaborations to create more tourism products, enhance the attractiveness of destinations, and widen the scope of tourism services in the country,” the DOT.

DOT Office of Industry Manpower Development director Nelly Dillera said the summit aims to help tourism officers and tour operators add value to their operations in their respective regions by sharing valuable insights from key resource persons.

“Each and every region has its own share of gravity, of challenges that put it down that limits its capacity to soar and bring its destination to where it should be in the market,” Dillera said.

“Through the activity we are doing today, we would also be of help. We would like to add value to what you are already doing,” she added.

The summit gathered tourism officers and tour operators alike to work on upgrading the offered products of each region through an interactive session in which they tackled new possibilities for tour packages and identified new and upcoming destinations to entice potential visitors and investors.

Among the topics discussed during the summit were catering to a niche market of digital-savvy millennials and Generation-Z through airtight branding and continuous product updates.

“This requires an established synergy between tourism officers and tour operators, such that the former will be providing the needed information and recommendations for destinations, and the latter will be working on product development, skills upgrade for personnel, and revenue generation,” the DOT said.

Also, the utilization of tourism data was also discussed during the summit, particularly on the topic of measuring not only tourist arrivals, departures, and spending, but also the number of jobs created, and the number of businesses uplifted.

These gathered data is vital following through with the industry’s long-term goals and serve as guide in policy-making following the provisions of the National Tourism Development Plan for 2016-2022.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat earlier underscored the importance of the DOT’s partnership with the private sector and intensified convergence with relevant government agencies as it contributed to the growth of foreign arrivals.

“The DOT’s continuous marketing promotions, aggressive actions to create new air routes and develop new tourism products, travel facilitation, and confidence in tourism investments drummed up the industry and resulted to this stellar performance. But I would like to emphasize that this will not be possible without the consolidated efforts of all stakeholders,” Puyat said.