|
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Gov’t gets Taiwanese celebs to promote RP
Ten tourists from Taiwan, along with Taiwanese media representatives, are now enjoying Cebu after participating in a joint promotion in Taiwan of the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Taipei City Mall.
The joint promotion, a raffle draw, tempted shoppers in Taiwan to purchase goods at the Taipei City Mall and get the chance to travel to Cebu for free, DOT Philippine representative in Taiwan Daphne Tseng said.
The 10 lucky winners were joined by the Philippine tourism’s celebrity endorsers in Taiwan, actor Brian Chou and actress Hsiang Ma-Chen.
Chou and Hsiang are promoting Philippine tourism in exchange for free trips to the Philippines. The two celebrities were by the DOT to endorse the Philippines in Taiwan, DOT assistant secretary for tourism planning and promotions Eduardo Jarque Jr. told a press conference at the Cebu City Sports Club yesterday.
Strategies
He said choosing celebrity endorsers is one of the DOT’s strategies to attract the country’s target country-markets. The Philippines also has celebrity endorsers in Korea, Japan and the People’s Republic of China.
“It (choosing celebrity endorsers) is the way to go,” Jarque said.
Aside from choosing celebrity endorsers in Taiwan, the DOT also spend about P3.5 million last year for marketing activities such as participating in travel and consumer fairs that country, including the Taichung International Travel Fair, Kaoshiung International Travel Fair and the Tainan Leisure and Travel Fair.
“There is so much happening in the Philippines that the DOT has to constantly promote itself to the country’s target tourism markets,” he said.
Increasing
Jarque also expressed satisfaction on the response of the Taiwanese markets to Philippine promotions, as manifested in the increasing number of Taiwanese tourists in the country.
Taiwan arrivals in the Philippines has been increasing since July last year from a year ago, from 19.9 percent to 20 percent.
Taiwan ranked fourth among the country’s top 10 foreign tourist arrivals. Korea, Japan and Thailand are the Philippines’ top three markets.
With aggressive marketing in Taiwan, DOT expects to increase Taiwanese tourist arrivals in the country to 130,000 this year from 120,000 in 2005, Tseng said.
Telenovela
The DOT is also looking forward to the filming of “Loving You in the Philippines-Subic,” a Taiwanese telenovela, which will be shot mostly in Subic.
The program will be starred by Hsiang and Chou. It consists of 20 episodes of 60 minutes each and will be aired in Taipei, Malaysia, China and Thailand, among others.
“The telenovela will incorporate the Philippines unique cultural characteristic and important promotional key points. The whole story will be based on positive and elegant description of how today’s young generation overcome difficulties,” Christina Shao, Hsiang and Chou’s talent manager said. (JBN)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (January 7, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
