(Photo courtesy of DOT Philippines)
MANILA – As the country's tourist destinations reopen, the Department of Tourism (DOT) has partnered with popular video-making app TikTok to promote the islands through #GandaMoPinas campaign.
Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the agency is using all channels to promote reopened tourist destinations.
“This collaboration with TikTok is one way of enticing people to travel locally while reiterating the importance of following the minimum health and safety protocols when traveling,” Romulo-Puyat said.
The joint campaign will feature the country's beautiful destinations through live video sessions with nine content creators from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Every day, from Sept. 22-30, the streamers will do a live TikTok session to highlight the beauty of his region or province through various tourism products, such as natural landscape, tourist spots, local cuisine, activities and local products.
They should also showcase why #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines and how visitors would appreciate #GandaMoPinas.
The three content creators with the highest number of views during the live show will be recognized as TikTok Funfluencers — one from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Winners will be officially announced on Oct. 4.
The following are the nine content creators and their schedule of Live TikTok sessions to be streamed through their respective TikTok accounts:
From Luzon:
Sept. 23 - Phoennella Tabamo (@phoennellapipay)
Sept. 24 - Maika Rivera (@riveramaika)
Sept. 30 - Queenee Pearl Mercado (@queeneemercado)
From Visayas:
Sept. 25 - Bo Labra (@bo.labra)
Sept. 26 - Christine Cuenco (@christinecuenco)
Sept. 27 - Lynnell Jasper Lomosad (@chockieaviation)
From Mindanao:
Sept. 22 - Sweet Manrique (@sweetmnrique)
Sept. 28 - Jazreel Villapaz (@jazvil.md)
Sept. 29 - JS Espejon Sanchez (@aja_js_sanchez)
Safer destinations
The campaign was launched as the government eases restrictions for leisure travel.
Starting Sept. 16, people aged 18 to 65 from Metro Manila were allowed to visit destinations under general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified GCQ as long as the concerned local government allows it.
While eager to resume tourism activities in the country, the tourism department made sure to advocate a "slow but sure" reopening of destinations for the safety of both visitors and host communities.
The department and tourism stakeholders have taken into consideration the safety of travelers when they started plotting the industry's recovery, Romulo-Puyat earlier said.
"As a result, many of our tourism products have been recalibrated and refined to cater to the shifting demands of the new normal," she said.
She said the government is also looking at Thailand's tourism model where vaccinated tourists from low-risk countries are now allowed to enter Phuket without the mandatory quarantine.
Under the so-called Phuket Sandbox program, visitors may travel to other Thai destinations once they've completed a 14-night stay in Phuket with negative RT-PCR test results.
"I am closely watching if the other countries are following but in the meantime, we are doing our part, we are vaccinating our tourism workers dahil 'yon naman ang gusto natin (because that is what we want)," Romulo-Puyat added. (PNA)
