News from Kyodo News International, Inc.
MANILA, Aug. 22 Kyodo
Would you like to have one of the 1,107 islands in the Philippines named after you? That's the come-on of the Philippine government in a bid to woo more Japanese tourists.
As part of its aggressive marketing to boost the country's sagging tourism industry, Philippine officials, with the help of Japanese public relations experts, hatched the idea to raffle off the naming of 25 islands to Japanese tourists.
Dubbed ''An Island in your Name,'' Philippine Tourism Secretary Joseph Durano hopes the new promo will lure more young and adventurous Japanese tourists to visit the Philippines, which is described as ''very dangerous'' by some Japanese.
The marketing promo will be launched in October.
The 25 Japanese raffle winners will not own the islands, explains Durano. Rather, he said the Japanese winners ''will have the prestige of having these islands named after them for a period of one year.''
The 25 islands that will be raffled off are part of the 124 islets that dot the Lingayen Gulf in Alaminos, a city in Pangasinan Province about 254 kilometers north of Manila.
The famous Hundred Islands, a cluster of 124 islets (during low tide and 123 at high tide), are located west of the gulf known for crystal clear waters ideal for swimming, snorkeling, fishing and scuba diving.
A 1,844-hectare nature and recreational park, the Hundred Islands National Park is mainly composed of limestone characterized by a wide reef flat.
The park boasts a highly diverse ecosystem that supports a variety of marine and terrestrial flora and fauna, and wildlife resources, while various marine resources such as sea grasses, corals and numerous fish species abound in the waters.
''We expect to generate tremendous excitement and awareness about the Hundred Islands during the campaign,'' said Durano, who went on an eight-day road show to Japan in June to sell the Philippines to Japanese tourists and investors.
He claims the promo is ''stirring waves in the Japanese tourism market'' through Japan's H.I.S. Co., which helped conceptualized the strategy.
Durano is hoping the promotion will enable the Philippines to get a bigger share of Japan's 17.4 million outbound travelers this year.
The number of Japanese travelers is expected to increase up to 20 million in 2010.
Stung by negative travel advisories issued by Western governments in the past two years warning of the potential terror threat in the country, many tourists cross the Philippines off their itinerary and opt for other destinations such as Thailand or Singapore.
Japanese tourists comprise the second largest group of visitors to the Philippines. The United States remains the top source of tourists, mainly because of Filipino-Americans who come to the Philippines to visit their relatives.
''Japan is very sensitive to any perceived threat, whether real or imagined,'' said Rosvi Gaetos of the Philippine Convention & Visitors Corp., a marketing arm of the Philippine Department of Tourism.
Indeed, the Philippines is struggling to shake off its image as an unstable and crime-ridden place.
Although the Philippines was left largely unscathed by SARS and avian flu epidemics, its poor image persists due to the decades-long Maoist and Muslim insurgencies, intense political bickering, rampant crime and pervasive corruption.
''We appointed an official public relations agency in Japan to manage our image there,'' Gaetos told Kyodo News in an interview.
She said: ''The best we can do (to change the negative perception in Japan) is really to flood the market with information that the Philippines is a good destination.''
''This campaign is really meant for young Japanese who love diving, who are sports enthusiasts, spa and health buffs and adventure-seekers,'' she said. Unlike other tourists, she said Japanese tourists ''have means, stay longer and are known big spenders.''
For Gaetos, Japan is ''a very good market,'' adding the Japanese are ''quality tourists.''
''Japanese are known to have a high disposable income and they can spend on destinations when they travel. They are disciplined tourists, and they bring a lot of money. So that's the value of the Japanese market,'' she said.
