Pilipinas Kay Ganda: DOT's Re-branding of Philippine Tourism is NOT Beautiful!
The new slogan sounds like a morning TV show while the website, with good enough pictures but lacking in information and content. The website reeks of the usual lack of brain power and "pwede na" attitude, typical government projects with funds going down the drain!
According to the DOT, the logo portrays "A cute tarsier, a marsupial endemic to the country, highlights our unique and playful character."
For your information, folks, the tarsier is a primate and not a marsupial (where kangaroos, cuddly koalas, wallabies even tasmanian devils belong)
Tutubi though is not critical of using Tagalog but perhaps another name than the "Kay Ganda" might be better like the already popular Mabuhay that precedes Wow Philippines. Foreigners don't understand Tagalog but proper marketing will compensate for it.
The content of the short-lived site also lack proper information. Tourism people, who should be knowledgeable about the Philippines, seem only to know only a little about the country. (have you met really knowledgeable people working at DOT offices? Those people are very rare, with Tutubi speaking from his own experience asking information from them. All they know are numbers of local hotels and some travel agencies to book them)
What do you expect, at the helm of the DOT, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim, besides his clear bias against backpackers as "not spending a lot" and "leave waste" also bets his money, again, on English, and probably has not yet learned that most tourists visiting the country and checking in at hotels do not speak English at all: Chinese(mainland China, HK and Taiwan), Japanese, Koreans! (Tutubi concurs with an Inquirer.net article that the future of Philippine tourism are the Chinese!)
Suggestion to the DOT: Please nominate or create a better symbol for the Philippines. Look at Singapore's Merlion symbol, it's relatively new, circa 1960s and yet look at it now. (Manila, too, has the half-man, half-fish image on the city's coat of arms for centuries but very few people know about it)
Update:
Tutubi wanted to explore more the new site http://beautifulpilipinas.com but it seems off-line, probably down or the DOT pulled the plug for serious overhaul, suggest PNoy also overhauls the DOT itself and fill it with qualified and passionate people.
Labels: Rants
posted by GingGoy @ 10:33 PM,
7 Comments:
-
At Nov 18, 2010, 12:34:00 AM,
travel said...
-
Why don't they use Manny Pacquiao?!Ride on his popularity, perhaps he could bring in more tourist than the singers endorsing the Philippines before:-)
-
At Nov 18, 2010, 2:12:00 AM,
witsandnuts said...
-
And when one erroneously keys in beautifulfilipinas.com, he will be directed to a porn site. The poor re-branding is also being talked about outside the Philippines. http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/philippines-pulls-new-tourism-campaign-20101117-17xmk.html
-
At Nov 19, 2010, 4:04:00 AM,
Photo Cache said...
-
I actually like the logo - would be neat on a tee shirt.
I have to see what's in the website before I comment. I sure hoped they invited some suggestions and from the pool of suggestions, they selected a list of finalist where people could vote on what they think is the best. And the logo that garnered the most number of votes would be the one they use. Just my opinion. -
At Nov 25, 2010, 10:24:00 AM,
said...
-
Hello Tutubi! Love your site! I find it very informative and useful, especially for a wannabe backpacker like me. I travel a lot but mostly for work which, sadly, leaves very little room for self-exploration. Also, there seems to be a shortage of people I can go 'roughing it out' with. Or maybe I've been hanging out with the wrong sort all this while. hahaha. Except for some friends I went gallivanting around Beijing with. They were amazing! Anyway, going back to the Pilipinas Kay Ganda melee, it was indeed sad to know that that was the best DOT and its partner agency could come up with. Really, what's wrong with retaining WOW Philippines? It had the right message and recall. Anyway, much has been said about the controversy and now that the log and website had been canned, I hope they will focus on getting back on track with this. Let's not allow our country to fall so far behind our Asian neighbors.
-
At Nov 25, 2010, 5:59:00 PM,
GingGoy said...
-
vickyras, like you, I also travel a lot due to work. gone were the days when I can file for long leave of absence from the-four-letter-word to travel and explore. weekends is more like it. this DOT fiasco now resulted to the resignation of Enteng Romano, the DOT undersecretary claiming full responsibility...he gained my respect for his delicadeza...we all make mistakes but most of them in the previous administration were "makapal ang mukha" and "kapit tuko" :(
-
At Nov 28, 2010, 2:25:00 AM,
bw said...
-
agree ... perhaps an english word would have been better for foreigners to understand.. like.. "so sexy " instead of kay ganda hehe :)
-
At Dec 16, 2011, 5:38:00 PM,
uvic said...
-
I do not think it is very unfortunate filipino not very rigorous in terms of making the logo.
Post a Comment