5 Reasons Why ‘Pilipinas Kay Ganda’ Slogan Not Good Enough

Compared to its neighbors, the Philippines welcomed about 3.1 million tourists in 2007. In subsequent years, there has been modest growth of foreign visitors, thanks partly to better exposure abroad, improved air links and perhaps influence of Filipino communities living abroad.

While we sound optimistic about these numbers, the number of foreign tourists visiting the Philippines actually pale in comparison with our neighbors. In the same year, Malaysia received 21 million visitors and Hong Kong (17.2 million), Thailand (14.5 million), Macau (12.9 million), Singapore (8.0 million), Indonesia (5.5 million) and Vietnam (4.2 million) were preferred by more tourists than our country. That’s the outcome even with the relatively popular Wow Philippines tourism campaign.

There are various reasons why that number was lower than nearby countries, even if the Philippines has quite a number of popular attractions like beaches, historical sites and natural wonders.

1. Ongoing peace and order situation
The Philippines sometimes appears in the headline for bad reasons: kidnappings, local insurgency and unstable political situation. The Maguindanao Massacre, abduction of local traders and Manila hostage crisis exacerbated these concerns that it is sometimes not surprising governments issue travel advisories much to the dismay of government officials.

2. Lack of air connections
With the shipping industry suffering from bad publicity (sinking of sea craft due to storm or overloading), air is the most reliable and quick way to reach destinations in a country divided into numerous islands. With no ‘open skies’ policy that will encourage foreign airlines to serve Philippine routes, and lack of airports that serve such purpose, foreigners need to pass by Manila or Cebu before reaching their local destinations.

3. Lack of international standards facilities
Many of local attractions have yet to establish a decent set of facilities to accommodate foreign visitors. The required infrastructure includes hotel/hostel facilities, local transport connections or security assurance from local police.

With these problems, no amount of tourism campaign can boost an industry teeming with opportunities. Even with that well-regarded Wow Philippines campaign. Now, enter the new set of tourism leaders who initiated some sort of rebranding of the country’s tourism campaign for foreign market. Rebranding refers to creation of a new name, logo or identity of an established brand for the purpose of developing a new perception among its stakeholders and competitors.

We are referring to the new approach by the Department of Tourism as it launched the new ‘Pilipinas Kay Ganda‘ (Philippines so beautiful) slogan. Even though we claim that the Philippines is a beautiful country and the new slogan perfectly fits the description, we don’t seem impressed by the initial impact of seeing this change. ‘Pilipinas Kay Ganda’ definitely lacks punch and strategy and feels undistinctive among the different tourism agencies promoting a holiday destination. We don’t claim to be brand experts or knowledgeable enough about Philippine tourism in terms of target demographics, but still this apparent brand reinvention doesn’t seem to fit in with the overall objectives of luring more tourists into the country.

Pilipinas Kay Ganda features an inscription of PILIPINAS — the Filipino term for the Philippines — on which the famous tarsier, yellow sun and the ubiquitous coconut tree is integrated into some letters. ‘Kay Ganda’ appears in blue color, along with waves, representative of the blue sea commonly found in the Philippines. It also contains information about the word ‘Kay Ganda’ including how it’s pronounced and its literal meaning.

Why we think the new slogan sucks?

1. The new website (www.beautifulpilipinas.com) is closely associated to an adult site.
It may not be surprising if a foreigner chooses the English translation of the slogan as search query for more information about this hyped tourism campaign. Alas, they could end up viewing pornographic photos, quite the opposite of what the Philippines wants to offer. While search engines could adjust results to better match relevance over time, at the moment curious folks have to contend with fast reflexes to click the ‘back’ button of the browser in case they inadvertently visit the adult website.

2. Tagalog is not the universal language
Looking at tourism campaigns of countries whose primary language isn’t English, they apparently target foreigners by using the English language, one they’re expected to use when interacting with tourists. Thailand (Amazing Thailand, Truly Amazes You) or Malaysia (Truly Asia) uses this approach even when sawadee or boleh are quite popular local terms. The Philippines has very good English speaking population like India (Incredible India). Pilipinas Kay Ganda appeals to domestic tourism market, but if the primary target are the Germans, the Russians or Canadians, this newly-hatched idea isn’t ideal. Unless they are married to Filipinas who can translate for them.

3. Design layout lacks professional appeal
We wonder if the Philippine tourism department tried to be austere in hiring designers for the new logo and grabbed its web designer who lacked ideas on branding and positioning to formulate a colorful collage of tourism symbols and roll them into one “eye-catching” promotional piece.

4. Pilipinas Win na Win / Pilipinas Got Talent or Umagang Kay Ganda?
Sorry, but when we search Google for Pilipinas Kay Ganda, we can’t help but notice the more popular query thus far is the noontime show ‘Pilipinas Win na Win’. Pilipinas Kay Ganda needs to be more distinctive so people looking for it won’t get lost. This simply means the proposed slogan lacks punch and wow effect. With other brands (TV shows) already in the minds of people when we talk about the term Pilipinas Kay Ganda, the tourism concept gets drowned in favor of the more established ones.

5. Plagiarism!
With P100 million price tag, the Philippines deserves more than just this lousy ‘Pilipinas Kay Ganda’ slogan that was even suspected of being a copied idea from a Polish tourism design (see image above). Enough said.

The problem with this country is that with a new administration comes a new set of programs, effectively discrediting the achievements of past leaders. People in power try to look popular by outdoing the program of others. Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim cited “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” as reflective of the optimism being represented by the new administration. “WOW Philippines” was a concept of former senator Richard Gordon and under the term of ex-President Gloria Arroyo.

We don’t understand why the eight-year-old slogan “WOW Philippines” has to be ditched even if it enjoys wide reach among the international community, not to mention the amount of effort and money invested. We think that incorporating the word “Mabuhay” is even better as the term, although foreign to many, is distinctively Filipino and has some amount of brand recognition (example: Philippine Airlines reward program Mabuhay Miles and business class accommodations Mabuhay Class, should have gathered some exposure to international travelers. It’s the same as Hawaii’s aloha or Thailand’s sawadee ka that a lot of foreigners are familiar with.

Moving forward, somehow it’s not just about the slogan that we use to reach out to foreign tourists. It is also about how we Filipinos make our country beautiful, staying true with the promises made by tourism slogans.

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