How do you sell a country where the allure of pristine beaches, a diverse culture and hospitable people is overshadowed by relentless news of kidnappings, insurgency and calamities?
Ask Richard Gordon, the Philippine tourism minister tasked to put the Southeast Asian archipelago on the itinerary of visitors fuelling the multi-billion-dollar global travel industry.
"I do have the most difficult job, but I have a different way of looking at it. I look at it as a challenge that I must surmount," Gordon said during a recent trip to Singapore, where he signed an accord for joint tourism promotion by the two countries.
Undaunted by a measly budget that is equivalent to just one advertising blitz by some of its neighbors, the Philippines' travel salesman is confident he can bring in the visitors through a novel marketing strategy.
His weapon: a sales force of seven million Filipino workers scattered worldwide.
Gordon has launched a program to tap them as "tourism volunteers" to convince friends, bosses and acquaintances to visit their homeland.
Each volunteer is urged to convince at least one tourist a month to visit the Philippines, where the visitor will be entitled to shopping and hotel discounts and other incentives.
The volunteer in turn earns bonus points for each tourist he sends home. The points can be accumulated to earn discounts for duty-free shopping.
The volunteer who sends the most tourists will get a US$10,000 cash prize at the end of 2002.
While offering a host of attractions and being one of Asia's most vibrant cultures, the Philippines has been largely off the tourism trail, thanks to negative publicity after a spate of kidnappings and a Muslim separatist rebellion in the southern part of the country.
News datelined Manila of typhoons and floods, as well as corruption in the government, often hogs international headlines.
The impact is telling. Only 1.8 million tourists visited the Philippines last year, compared to between seven and 13 million arrivals for Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore.
But Gordon is undaunted.
"I don't think it's hard to sell the Philippines because we have enough destinations.
"We are mixed -- we have culture, history, nature, adventure, sun, underwater, sea, beautiful vistas and the people are great," said Gordon, a charismatic, fast-talking former mayor once considered a contender for the country's presidency.
And the negative image?
"Perception can be shattered once you get there. The biggest key to reformatting of that perception is that we have the seven million people abroad.
"They are all productive, kind, generous, they are all happy people and hospitable. That's the same way we are in our country," he said.
Disputing concerns that the country is unsafe, Gordon noted that the bandit group Abu Sayyaf, which still holds two American hostages and several Filipinos, is confined to the extreme southern portion of the Philippines, which has over 7,000 islands
And Manila has signed a ceasefire as part of peace talks with the largest Muslim separatist group, he said.
A syndicate kidnapping Singaporean businessmen in Manila has been busted, with the masterminds -- also Singaporeans -- arrested.
The kidnappings of ethnic Chinese businessmen were mostly planned by their colleagues and the dwindling communist insurgents have not kidnapped any tourists, Gordon said.
RSS