Best off-road destinations to be featured in tourism campaign

MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA – A tourism campaign is expected to help more adventurous Filipino and foreign drivers find the best local destinations for off-road driving.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) has tied up with the local distributor of British car maker Land Rover to come up with a tourism campaign involving several local tourist spots and off-road destinations.

Under the partnership DOT and Land Rover Philippines will come out with TV commercials wherein Land Rover vehicles will drive through tourist destinations in the Philippines. This would highlight the DOT's “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” campaign.

During the official launch last September 13, Land Rover Philippines and DOT showed a glimpse of what would be the series of TV spots. The first vehicle be featured is the Ranger Rover Evoque, a 2.2L diesel engine compact SUV. It was driven through the Bangui Wind Mills and the Paoay sand dunes in Ilocos Norte.

The TV spot would be shown on TV in October as part of the initial salvo of the campaign.

According to Land Rover Philippines Executive Director Marc Soong, the campaign is expected to run until 2013, which could also include an international campaign. This could be similar to the DOT's campaign in the United Kingdom where the “It's More fun in the Philippines” slogan was put in several spots in London, including red double-decker buses, taxicabs, and underground railway stations.

DOT Assistant Secretary Ramon Enerio said the partnership is the first brand tie-up that the agency has with a vehicle brand. He said they are hoping to build more partnership with private groups to help in promoting the Philippines.

“We’re also trying to compete with other countries that have tourist destinations. By getting more private corporations to help build our tourism destinations, more domestic and foreign tourists would arrive because it'll be more comfortable and more fun for them to travel to these destinations,” Enerio said.

Till next time, this is Monico D. Mekaniko, Va-va-vroom!

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