It is the happy news on two fronts which are foremost on my agenda these days: jobs and tourism. According to the latest report released by the Philippine Statistics Authority, employment in the Philippine tourism industry grew 6.4 percent in 2023. Today, tourism-related jobs number 6.2 million, and the sector now accounts for 12.9 percent of the country’s total employment.
Make no mistake about it. If done properly, travel content creation is hard work. I am told they spend for the travel expenses themselves, and later on can they offset their expenses through sponsored content. Building a following involves some capital outlay on their part. For the video content creators, much of their time is spent preparing their videos for posting on their channels.
When we were still in the soda business, we were up against giants like Coke and Pepsi. To sell our Cosmos brands, we zeroed in on value. We offered the same refreshing qualities of the more expensive soda brands but sold it at a lower price. We reinforced that messaging in all our campaigns, and it stuck. People remembered, gave it a try and liked our product. As we had hoped, we were able to dominate the market enough for the bigger brands to make an offer for Cosmos.
I myself am constantly learning about the new channels of communication, about how fast things happen and how fickle the market has become. I hear a lot about the importance of storytelling in content creation, and my takeaway is this: we can shape storytelling in Philippine tourism. Things may be very different now in terms of execution and timing, but I can see that some principles remain the same: have a clear, unified message and stick to it.
Apart from the disappointing performance of Filipino 15-year-olds in a global assessment on creative thinking, the country also rated poorly in another study. In the 2024 World Competitiveness Ranking prepared by...