The Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT) has launched the enhanced Philippine tourism campaign ‘Love the Philippines’ in the Australasia region. The campaign launch was held on the 19th and 22nd of December 2023 at the Federation Square and Four Seasons Hotel, in Melbourne and Sydney, respectively. The events, led by the DOT Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands office, the Philippine Embassy in Canberra and the Consulate General in Sydney and Melbourne, were attended and supported by Filipino-Australian community group leaders and local media personnel.
Melbourne Tram 3522 is the first of several trams to feature the brand ‘Love the Philippines’ through special tram wraps. This tram plies a route to Malvern or Glen Iris. The Philippine tourism campaign in the Sydney Light Rail, on the other hand, can be seen plying Circular Quay to Kingsford and Randwick. The Love the Philippines campaign also plies a route in the Inner West line from Central to Dulwich Hill. Since Auckland in New Zealand has no trams, the tourism campaign is featured in its double-decker buses.
“DOT’s Philippine tourism campaign in the Australian and New Zealand transport system will continue until the end of March 2024. Our next tourism campaign project in the region will be inside the trains and buses. We shall add three (3) more routes in Sydney. The ‘Love the Philippines’ tram wrap takes about a month to produce. This includes the week-long approval of digital design.”, Ms Purificacion Molintas, Tourism Attache for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands explained.
The ‘Love the Philippines’ is the tourism slogan and marketing campaign of the country which was launched on the 27th of June 2023. It replaced its earlier ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ campaign which ran for 11 years.
As per DOT’s August 2023 report, Australia ranked 5th among the top countries where Philippine visitors and tourists come from. The top tourist destinations by air are Manila and surrounds, Clark, Puerto Princesa, Boracay, Bohol and Cebu. Travelling by sea, the top destinations include Manila and surrounds, Cabugao, Batanes, Coron and Puerto Princesa.
The DOT’s vision is “to develop a globally competitive, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible tourism industry that promotes inclusive growth through employment generation and equitable distribution of income thereby contributing to building a foundation for a high trusted society”. The Philippines has recently earned four major World Travel Awards for 2023 and was named the World’s Leading Beach Destination, the World’s Leading City Destination, the World’s Leading Dive Destination and Asia’s Leading Dive Destination. Other 2023 World Travel Awards Winners from the country were Amanpulo, the Leading Dive Resort and the City of Dreams Manila, the World’s Leading Fully Integrated Resort. As of 1st of January 2024, the Philippines recorded 5.4 million international arrivals. This was about 600,000 over the country’s 2023 set target of 4.8 million.
