DoT launches ‘Invite Home a Friend’ program for Fil-Ams in US
If you have Filipino-American friends who have since left the country for the US, it’s high time you asked them to come back.
The Department of Tourism (DoT) just revived its “Invite Home a Friend” program which targets Filipino balikbayans or expatriates in North America, particularly the young professionals, millennials, and social media influencers.
Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo made an impassioned call to the Filipino-American community to “Invite Home a Friend” during a welcome reception held last week at the Mayflower restaurant in down town Los Angeles./IMAGE Department of Tourism
The announcement was made by Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo during her visit to the state of California. They plan to run the program every quarter of the year via a raffle draw and a balikbayan nominee by September. The travel reward won may be used anytime between January and April 2018, according to Teo.
The program’s mechanics have yet to be finalized, but Teo already asked the DoT in Los Angeles, California to spread the word to the Filipino American community. The program was first launched in 1994 by then-Tourism Secretary Mina Gabor specifically for the US travel market.
It’s designed to attract Filipinos in their 30s and 40s to “go back to your roots and learn the traits of the Filipinos,” said Teo during a press conference in San Francisco, CA last July 14.
Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo meets with some of the members of the Filipino-American community in Los Angeles./IMAGE Department of Tourism
“We will offer them little-known tourist destinations and sites, which are now among our priority growth areas for tourism development. We will pair them with other preferred Asian destinations like Philippines-Singapore, Philippines-Bangkok, Philippines-Hong Kong, and Philippines-Kuala Lumpur, just to mention a few,” she added.
Some of the sites they seek to promote to FilAms are Siquijor, Masbate, Negros Province, Palawan, Cebu, Baguio, Davao, and Ilocos. Some of the perks will include free flights and hotel stays, though nothing is set in stone as of today.
Teo said this is a way for the tourism department to say thank you to the country’s balikbayans, which DoT-Los Angeles Attaché Richmond Jimenez echoed.
Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo receives an award from the California State Assembly./IMAGE Department of Tourism
“Our people [sic] is our strength. With our beautiful destinations as a backdrop, it is in the company of great people that make every visit to the Philippines more memorable and worth coming back for,” Jimenez said.
North America continues to be the second-largest source of tourists, with visitors from Asia the only one to outpace them. The United States is the second largest spender for tourism, amounting to Php 2.65 billion in February behind Korea’s Php 5.83 billion.
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, manilastandard.net, The Philippine Star, Department of Tourism, Department of Tourism – Philippines Facebook
Image source: Department of Tourism – Philippines Facebook
