CEBU CITY – Having a better infrastructure will help the country attract more tourists, not through slogans.
Former Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon made the retort when he was asked to comment on the country’s newly launched “Love the Philippines” tourism slogan.
“Slogan is nothing,” uttered Gordon, who was in Cebu to attend an event of the Philippine Red Cross on Saturday, July 1.
“What is important is we have infrastructure. Magaling tayo mag-welcome, ang init natin mag-welcome. Pag dumating pasahero dito, walang kuryente sa airport, ang init (We are good at welcoming, we welcome warmly. When passengers arrive, there is no electricity in the airport, very hot),” added the former senator.
It is through having better facilities such as better seats, better restrooms in airports that tourists will keep coming back.
“It is really the culture of tourism that you want, not the slogan,” said Gordon, who led the Department of Tourism from 2001 to 2004.
Gordon clarified that he has nothing against the new slogan but instead of debating about it, the country must focus on finding more ways to attract tourists.
Citing Malaysia and Thailand, Gordon said other countries are not changing their tourism slogans.
“I have no complaints about it (slogan). We have bigger fish to pry. We need the tourists to come para may pambili tayo. ‘Yan ang problema ng bansa, walang pambili. Walang pambili ang tao, malungkot ang tao. Dumating ang tourist, dumating ang negosyo, may manufacturing, mayron tayong pambili (We need the tourists to come so that the people will have the money to spend. That’s the problem of the country, the people have no money to spend. There’s no money for the people to spend, the people are unhappy. The tourists arrive, businesses will arrive, there will be manufacturing and we will have the money to spend),” said Gordon.
Gordon said he is for the country’s new tourism slogan as it is similar to the one that the country had during his stint as DOT chief.
“The “Philippines” is too long. It cannot even be spelled by some of my friends at school. What I did is, I made a short one, WOW Philippines,” said Gordon.
Just like “Love the Philippines,” “WOW Philippines” had a double meaning, Gordon said.
“World of wonders, it’s an acronym. Warm over winter. If you’re cold in America, you can go to Boracay, Cebu. Watch our waterworld, you go diving, wild over water, you go Siargao,” Gordon said.
While he is in favor of the new slogan, Gordon criticized what the country had in 2011.
“Kaya ako natuwa naman sa bagong slogan kasi inis ako sa dating slogan. Kasi the slogan ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’…we paid a lot of money for ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines,’ kinopya lang sa ‘It’s more fun in Switzerland in 1952,’” revealed Gordon.
The It’s More Fun in the Philippines was conceptualized during the term of DOT Secretary Ramon Jimenez.