The Philippines Crowdsource Tourism Campaign

The Government of the Philippines has launched a new campaign in an attempt to attract more tourists to the country. Countries all around the world invest millions of dollars every year as they seek to attract more visitors, but the Filipino campaign is somewhat different from other campaigns: instead of outsourcing the project, they’re crowdsourcing it.

Using Facebook and Twitter, the campaign is asking social media users to use the “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” tagline to express what visiting the Philippines is truly about.

With 27 million Facebook users and almost four million Twitter users, the campaign is growing. On the 6th of January, the #itsmorefuninthephilippines hashtag on Twitter was trending all over the world and hundreds of Facebook users have already posted their ideas on what really is more fun in the Philippines.

With this campaign, the government expects to increase its number of tourists who visit the country in 2012 to 4.2 million, up from the 3.7 million that visited the country in 2011.

The Filipino Government is also investing substantially less in promoting tourism than some other countries. While Singapore invests $250 million per year, the Philippines invest $20 million.

What the social media has allowed us to do in such a short time is allow the most number of people to help build the brand by participating in the effort to define it more sharply. The more they talk to each other about it, the more it becomes equity. Fun = The Philippines. The Philippines = Fun.
Ramon R. Jimenez, Tourism Secretary of the Philippines