Back in 2010, I wrote a review about tourism slogans, taglines and logos of ASEAN countries (read the article here) that were both amazing and amusing. After almost two years, I thought it would be a good time to revisit the topic and see what had changed on the landscape.
It took a great courage for one nation to change a brand that was attached to them for so long. Still, a brave non-ASEAN tourism destination like Maldives went on to re-brand their respective tourism slogans. Late last year, Maldives adopted a new slogan – Always Natural, which replaces ‘The Sunny Side of Life’ of 11 years. In ASEAN, at least two countries, Philippines & Vietnam, revamped their promotional strategies and came out with new slogans for 2012. Other countries are just content to retain their existing slogans, but add more spices by adding supporting campaign taglines.
Below are the list of updated tourism slogans, taglines and logos of 10 ASEAN countries for 2012. Feel free to discuss about this in the comments section at the bottom of this post.
The new logo of Vietnam tourism – Timeless Charm
Personally, I like the new colorful logo. And the design looks more professional compared to the previous one. The lotus petals looked more prominent to reflect the country’s symbol. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) said last year that the new slogan and symbol were approved by Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism and that they will be used for the national tourism promotion programme between 2012 and 2015. This new logo and slogan is a result of the competition for slogan creation that took place from August to December last year.
Philippines new tourism slogan and logo – It’s More Fun In The Philippines
It’s more fun for Philippines this time, I mean; their new tourism slogan is really ‘It’s More Fun In The Philippines’. Having learned a painful lesson after a mass criticism from the previous slogan, its Department of Tourism took a more careful approach by focusing the new theme first on the domestic market. However, being a critical netizen as they are, Filipinos were quick to make fun of the new slogan hours after it was announced. A social media campaign website had been set up to encourage Filipinos to actively define the ‘fun’ element of their own country. Whatever Filipinos complained about their new tourism slogan, ‘It’s More Fun in The Philippines’ is rightfully better than their previous ‘Pilipinas Kay Ganda’.
Logo of “Miracle Year of Amazing Thailand”. (PRNewsFoto/Tourism Authority of Thailand)
The ever prominent Amazing Thailand logo
In August 2011, Thailand announced that it will carry a Miracle Thailand campaign for 2011-2012. However, the launch was postponed due to the flood crisis. In March this year, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) unveiled ‘Miracle Year of Amazing Thailand 2012, a mega-campaign to celebrate the birthdays of members of the Thai Royal Family. I can’t find any source to confirm whether this campaign will replace the ever successful ‘Amazing Thailand, Always Amazes You’ slogan, but there are some suggestion that Amazing Thailand remains, while Miracle Year is a strategic campaign to achieve Thailand’s tourism target until 2015.
There are no changes on the ‘Laos: Simply Beautiful’ slogan, but 2012 is ‘Visit Lao Year 2012′, hence the additional ‘Visit 2012′ words on its logo. They had even created Facebook pages to support this campaign that are available in English, Lao, Thai and Japanese language. Visit this website to learn more about the campaign.
[The following countries had no or little changes to their slogans since 2010]
The ever succesful Malaysia Truly Asia Logo
There’s no change to the highly successful Malaysia Truly Asia slogan for Malaysia in 2012 or beyond. Why fix if it’s not broken? And very recently, World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index ranks Malaysia 2nd among the ASEAN countries (after Singapore) in offering the most attractive environment for developing the travel and tourism sector. A new global TV commercial had also been produced, along with a new upbeat song [watch the video here]. The new global campaign was announced during World Travel Mart in London last year
Your Singapore logo – Singapore make it clear that they mean business with their tourism campaign
According to the latest World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2012, Singapore was ranked at no. 10 from 139 economies, and that makes it no. 1 among ASEAN countries, followed by Malaysia (35th) and Thailand (41st).
A wondeful logo from Indonesia tourism
Wonderful Indonesia – A slogan launched early last year in ASEAN Tourism Ministers Forum in Cambodia is set to continue this year. The logo had not changed, but the word ‘Visit’ from 2010 had been replaced with ‘Wonderful’ to indicate that Visit Indonesia 2008-2010 campaign had ended. The slogan is rather simple and straight forward, just like Thailand’s ‘Amazing Thailand’.
Cambodia’s Kingdom of Wonder slogan and logo
Brunei Tourism Slogan and Logo – The Green Heart of Borneo, The Kingdom of Unexpected Treasures
Mystical Myanmar – It was the same slogan for Myanmar since it was created in 2007. And seriously, I can’t find any tourism logo for Mystical Myanmar since my previous post about this topic in 2010. Or is there?
ASEAN, or South East Asia, has its own slogan and logo
And finally, did you know that ASEAN itself has its own slogan and a beautiful logo? The slogan is South East Asia – Feel The Warmth. It was launched during Asean Tourism Forum (ATF) meeting in Brunei in 2010. A campaign website had also been launched to promote ASEAN countries under one roof. The nice looking website can be accessed at www.southeastasia.org.