WHEN the brand campaign, “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” was presented to President Benigno S. Aquino III at Malacañang, he was very pleased.
Well, except for one tiny thing, the logo of the campaign featured a map of the Philippines over a banig with protruding lines. It bothered him enough to point this out, according to then Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. Aquino wanted the weaves altogether and smooth, “because he wanted the Philippines together,” united. And he also reminded the presenters led by Jimenez and the advertising team of BBDO Guerrero, to make sure “not to forget Batanes,” in the map.
Such was Aquino’s particular attention to details, something that many of his Cabinet Secretaries and staff in Malacañang had come to appreciate.
For someone who had admitted that he had not traveled much before he became President, Aquino became one of the ardent supporters of the tourism industry. He made sure the Department of Tourism (DOT) was ably represented in important forums here and abroad, counting on Jimenez as one of his administration’s key economic managers.
Aquino also made personal pitches for the country’s travel trade sector. During a working visit to the United Kingdom in 2012, he gamely posed for photos with Jimenez, and other government officials in the Philippine delegation, aboard a red London double-decker bus, wrapped with the slogan, It’s More Fun in the Philippines.
It was under Aquino that the DOT drew up its first National Tourism Development Plan for 2011-2016. Its targets were deemed too ambitious even by local tourism leaders, but only because many of the targets hinged on the projects and initiatives of other government agencies dealing with infrastructure, aviation and security.
So while many of its visitor and revenue targets were not met due to sputtering shortcomings in the infrastructure sector, air connectivity issues, along with the calamities and diplomatic skirmishes that affected inbound arrivals, Aquino ended his term in 2016 with a then historic-high of almost 6 million foreign tourists and visitor receipts reaching P230.13 billion, from 3.9 million arrivals and P4.05 billion in 2011.
According to a statement by the Aquino family, the former president passed away on Thursday morning due to renal failure, a complication of his diabetes.
Image courtesy of Malacañang Photo
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