How do you make the Philippines the next best thing in Asia?

With the political events happening in our country, one would think that attracting tourists to come and visit the Philippines is an impossible task. But with all the beautiful sights we can offer, plus the friendly Filipino faces that welcome tourists, marketing the Philippines should not be as hard as it seems.

Let’s read some of our country’s respected personalities’ ideas on how they can market the Philippines to become the next best thing in Asia.

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For comments and suggestions, send e-mail to monswordsworth@yahoo.com.

Tourism Secretary Joseph ACE DURANO: By intelligent promotions and capacity building rather than razzle-dazzle gimmicks, the Department of Tourism’s activities are driven by empirically tested data regarding wants or demands of target market segments. For the amount the government invests, our intelligent promotions have been giving us the greatest value for money and high return of investments insofar as targeted market segments are concerned. As far as capacity building, the approach of empirically scooping the entire tourism supply chain has given us the ability to guide the development of each of its components in a complementary and synergistic manner. Of course, all this is done with the active involvement, inputs and help of the private sector.

EDD FUENTES, Fuentes Publicity Network Inc. president: Tourism is still the country’s best attraction. In spite of all the negative publicity, it’s still a beautiful place with awesome tourist destinations, hospitable, service-oriented people, and it’s relatively safe here. The government simply needs to be more focused in its efforts and get all the concerned sectors involved in one, synchronized, and focused marketing campaign.

Senator RICHARD J. GORDON: We need to stick to promoting our country through a brand that works, and then keep building that brand through aggressive advertising and marketing. "WOW Philippines," which saw the tourism industry through some of our most trying moments, now has become an internationally and domestically recognizable brand for our country. It put us back on the radar screen as a serious player in the international tourism game.

We also need to work on our products by encouraging investments in new hotels, resorts and other tourism enterprises through tax breaks, and fast, friendly, and efficient governance to truly create world-class establishments in the most beautifully, historical and culturally significant areas of our country.

Also, to make the Philippines a major global player in tourism, we need to strengthen tourism industry promotions, increase the country’s accommodations capabilities, and rally the public and private sectors to support tourism development.

Most importantly, we need to instill a culture of tourism in all Filipinos. This is ultimately about building our self-worth as a people, not only through the dignity of work through investments generated, but in a genuine awareness of the richness of our history and culture, and the beauty of our country.

TZARINA G. SALDAÑA, Berkeley International vice president, marketing, human resources and people management and development, and Family First: I will market the country as "The Closest Thing to Paradise." We, Filipinos, should be proud of our many natural resources. And our people are warm, friendly and the happiest on earth. It is our resilience that sets us apart from the rest of the world. This same attitude makes us the best service providers in the world.

This country can be the new capital of eco-tourism, medical tourism and business process outsourcing. You will never find a group of people who are as highly motivated, hardworking and enjoy life as much as the Filipinos.

EMILY ABRERA, Cultural Center of the Philippines chairperson and McCann chairperson emeritus: I have always thought that the greatest asset we have is our people: we are open, warm-hearted, caring, and creative. This makes us ideal for the service and creative industries, which are highly valued today.

So this is what I would concentrate on analyzing, defining and capturing as an edge. I would then position that strength against a number of fresh opportunities arising from certain needs of the world today: caring for the aged or for the sick (medical tourism is another phrase they use for that), perhaps health spa services, call centers, entertainment, music, the arts. You could range different services in clusters, and from there, start planning.

I do not mean to sound simplistic. But I do believe that our human resources would be the place to begin if we want to market more effectively to the world.

JOEY CONCEPCION, presidential consultant for entrepreneur, Go Negosyo advocate, and Philippine Center for Entrepreneur founding trustee: This is why we started Go Negosyo, which hopes to inspire Filipino people to change their attitude from pessimism to optimism. Building a culture of enterprising Filipinos starts really in the mind. Through Go Negosyo, we are able to get successful Filipino entrepreneurs to rally behind this cause, and if we look at why Filipino Chinese families create successful entrepreneurs it is because they starts when the kids are young. In the USA, everyone wants to be a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Here, we must make the youth look up to people like National Book Store’s Soccoro Ramos or SM’s Henry Sy.

The Phil-Ams who are investing in condos, the foreign investors who are now buying our bonds, they see the government reforms. It is up to us now to believe in this country and create an entrepreneur revolution.

Bohol Rep. (first district) EDGARDO M. CHATTO, House of Representatives committee on tourism chairman: We are now realizing the benefits that can be derived from tourism and seeing the benefits trickle down to the local communities and rural areas, serving as catalysts for various economic activities, such as construction, manufacturing, agriculture, and others.

We believe that the primary task of the House committee on tourism is to ensure that the Philippines will not M-I-S-S the opportunity for growth through tourism.

M stands for marketing initiatives, particularly in the areas of product development, pricing, promotional strategies both for domestic and international marketing; and people empowerment through capability-building of our tourism workers and front liners in the industry.

I stands for incentives packages.

S stands for structural reforms of the Department of Tourism and attached agencies to effectively steer and promote the tourism industry.

S stands for the security and safety of tourists in the country.

T in tourism stands for the culture of tourism, which must be instilled in the values system of our people.

P in the Philippines stands for private-public (national and local government) sector partnership in the tourism industry.

The committee fully supports the current marketing thrust of the Department of Tourism. It has strategically defined key markets in Asia and focused promotions into these markets. While admittedly, we cannot afford large scale and very costly media campaigns, we can tap also the many Filipino organizations, the Filipinos aboard who can all be potential ambassadors of goodwill.

We recognize the fact that tourism necessitates the inflow of investments. The need to provide incentives to attract more investors into the industry is another concern that must be addressed. Structural reforms should likewise be introduced to strengthen the DOT organization and eliminate overlaps in function. This entails earmarking of additional funds and pooling of resources for tourism marketing and development efforts.

Security is the other major issue to address. Likewise, we must harness a culture of tourism, which involves the openness of the hearts and minds of every Filipino to take part in the country’s efforts.

KEREN PASCUAL, president, Keren Pascual Public Relations Services: I wouldn’t consider the Philippines as the next big thing, since we have already been the big thing since the Marcos era. We could work on being the best. Each country has something beautiful and unique to be proud of; it’s a matter of highlighting it. The Department of Tourism has been doing a good job of this abroad, promoting the Philippines as the ideal destination with thousands of sights, sounds and experiences.

All I have to do is support their efforts, complementing whatever strategy they have. With their efforts and the Philippines’ innate wonders, our country will stand above the rest. We will be the FAMOUS Philippines!

RELI L. GERMAN, Agents International Inc. Public Relations president: The Philippines should be positioned as "The Land of International Festivals." This would involve holding a succession of festivals and conferences, with participants coming from all over the world, and would call for the harnessing of sufficient financial, logistical and human resources.

Each event could be held over a period of several days, in scenic venues all over the country. Necessarily, the appropriate government agencies, in cooperation with the private sector, should prepare a yearlong calendar of activities toward this end.