THE PHILIPPINES’ FORUM FOR INTERNATIONAL READERS SINCE 1981
November 27-December 17, 2016 Vol. XXXV No. 2
OUT SOON!
www.expatphilippines.ph
Newspaper
Because it's 2016, you didn't witness something if you don't catch it with your phone. The Festival of Lights – a spectacular lights and sounds show – is the centerpiece of Ayala Land’s two-month long Christmas spectacle that aims to bring holiday cheer to everyone. It runs daily, every 30 minutes from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. until Jan. 8.
‘More Fun in the Philippines’ no more New tourism campaign to cost PhP650-M
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t’s no longer more fun in the Philippines. Well, at least when it comes to the tourism campaign, as last week, reports came out that McCann Worldgroup Philippines would be in charge of conceptualizing the country’s new tourism campaign. According to multiple reports, McCann, which won the bid to be the DOT’s advertising and promotions partner for a year, will have PhP650 (US$13.2) million to work with. “The PhP650 million, that’s not only for the tagline itself. The PhP650 million is inclusive of all the media placements from all over the world,” Tourism undersecretary for advocacy and public affairs Katherine de
Castro was quick to explain. “The production of commercials, billboards, radio jingles, if there’s any, even the design of the website are part of the PhP650 million.” De Castro also pointed out that neighboring countries like Thailand have a bigger budget for their tourism campaigns. She likewise mentioned that the Philippine tourism industry is responsible for 10 percent of the country’s GDP. As noted by a CNN Philippines report, the Philippines’ tourism budget in 2016 of US$75 million is exponentially less than countries like China (US$292 billion) and South Korea (US$25 billion). Curiously,
By TIMOTHY JAY IBAY
the Department of Budget and Management slashed the Tourism Department’s budget from US$75 million in 2016 to US$50 million for 2017. As a note, the Philippines had five million international tourist arrivals in 2015. Meanwhile, Southeast Asian neighbors Thailand had 29.8 million; Malaysia 25 million; while city-state Singapore had 12 million. Lack in translation The Department of Tourism (DOT) points to a Nielsen study conducted from March to April of this year as the reason for page 3 the change. The study found
Filipinos—happiest employees in Southeast Asia By RICHARD RAMOS
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nother reason for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to set up shop in the Philippines was added as Filipinos have been found to be the happiest employees – across all job levels (from fresh graduates to managerial levels) – in the region. According to the 2016 Job Happiness Index Report headed by JobStreet.com, the Filipinos have a happiness average of 6.25, leading the way among seven Asian countries surveyed. Rounding out the seven-nation list were Indonesia – second with 6.16; Thailand, third with 5.74; Hong Kong, fourth with 5.54; Vietnam fifth at 5.48; Malaysia at sixth with 5.22, and Singapore last at 5.09. A total of 50,000 respondents from the seven countries were interviewed online over the period of June to July 2016, which included a total of 12,796 Filipino repage 3 spondents.