Cebu urged to use digitalization, branding to promote tourism

Donald Lim, country chief executive officer of Dentsu Aegis Philippines, urges tourism stakeholders to use digital tools to promote destinations during the Tourism Innovation Forum of the Cebu Business Month 2019. /CBM photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines—Speakers at the Cebu Business Month 2019 Tourism Innovation Forum urged Cebu to use digital tools and branding for tourism marketing.

Donald Lim, country chief executive officer of Dentsu Aegis Philippines, said that Cebu should consider digital tools like social media as a promotion tool for tourism.

“We have a very strong and vibrant Internet user base,” Lim said.

Quoting company statistics, Lim said that 76 million Filipinos are Internet and active social media users. He also discussed digitizing of tourism marketing by using influencers to act as ambassadors for a brand; use viral marketing to generate curiosity; leverage on technology to create engagement and excitement and create compelling stories so there’s no need to hard sell.

Lim cited as an example the iButterfly app developed by Dentsu and used in Japan in 2010 tapping various species of butterfly to promote different cities in Japan. Dentsu developed iButterfly using augmented reality (AR), motion sensor and GPS technology.

“You can create an attraction for (the) entire Cebu to catch, maybe not a butterfly, but an icon for the province (using the iButterfly),” he pointed out.

On the other hand, former tourism secretary Mina Gabor said Cebu could develop as many brands as possible.

“Branding depends on different categories. It can be several brands that put Cebu on the map,” said Gabor, who is the founder and president of the International School of Sustainable Tourism.

Meanwhile, Eastgate Publishing Corp. President and Editor Jun Ventura said that Cebu has not capitalized on the awards it has received. Ventura discussed the topic Picking Low Lying Fruits during the CBM 2019 Tourism Innovation Forum.

Conde Nast ranked Cebu as number 3 Best Islands in the World in 2017 and number 8 on the 15 Best Islands in World in 2018. Travel+Pleasure magazine also ranked Cebu as number 2 in World’s Friendliest Islands in 2017.

Ventura maintained that these awards were given by the top 2 travel publications in the world. Both publications have a combined average digital audience of two million, six million social media followers and an average 45-year-old readers with average annual income of almost P10 million.

According to Ventura, Cebu could use these awards as a hook for a marketing campaign and use these in airport signages, websites, collateral and brochures, among others.

These could also be used to motivate and sustain the travel industry stakeholders and the academe to aim to remain on the list always and increase Cebu’s ranking, he added./dcb