After more than a decade, the Philippines is officially saying goodbye to its “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” tourism slogan as it unveiled the new “Love the Philippines” campaign slogan to act as a “guidepost” for boosting the country’s tourism industry beyond the usual sightseeing.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) unveils its new tourism slogan: Love the Philippines (Photo from DOT via Facebook)
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. witnessed the unveiling of the new slogan during the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) 50th anniversary celebration at The Manila Hotel on Tuesday, June 27.
As he affirmed his administration’s commitment to advance the country’s tourism industry, Marcos explained that “this prioritization goes deeper than merely stimulating economic activities and generating job opportunity.”
“It springs from the genuine love that you, me, and all of us have for the Philippines. In what better way to express that love by directly incorporating it into our country’s new tourism campaign slogan: Love the Philippines,” he said.
“This is the new branding which we unveiled today. It will serve as our guide post for the Philippine tourism industry moving forward,” the chief executive added.
The slogan aims to bring the message that the Philippines offers more than sightseeing as Marcos enumerates the goals of the new tourism campaign—“promote regional products, build more infrastructure for ease of travel and champion green movements, amongst others.”
These plans are laid out in the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) 2023-2028 that the President approved in May 2023.
The NTDP will serve as the Marcos administration’s blueprint to transform the country into a “tourism powerhouse” through values anchored on Filipino culture, heritage, and identity.
The country’s new tourism slogan came after the widely successful “It’s More Fun in the Philippines,” which was launched in 2012 to replace “Wow Philippines.”
In a Facebook post, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) expressed support for the DOT’s new tourism slogan.
Marcos, in his speech, urged Filipinos to “strive to translate our golden vision into reality” as he underscored how this encapsulates the agency’s theme for this year’s anniversary, “Ginto: Greater Innovations, New Tourism.”
“Let this serve as our inspriation as we continue to recover from the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic to which the tourism sector was undoubtedly one of the hardest hit,” he said.
In May, the DOT’s latest report showed that the total number of international tourist arrivals in the country was at 2,029,419.
“With that being said, I am happy to see the latest data on the status of our tourism sector. We continue to see improving figures in tourism revenues, employment, international arrivals, and domestic trips,” Marcos said.
“All of these are encouraging signs that the tourism industry in our country, as a whole, is headed well towards full recovery. It also conveys a strong message to the world that we are ready and fully equipped to welcome tourists, travelers as well as investors,” he added.
During the program, DOT Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco presented a Plaque of Appreciation to Marcos in honor of his father, former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., being the founder of Philippine Tourism.