Tourism campaign materials are supposed to make you want to book a flight. Yet in the Philippines, they test facial recognition instead. Before the landscapes, and long before the locals, one image reliably takes the center stage, leaving the country itself to play a supporting role. When the face of a ‘leader’ takes up more space than the destination itself, the campaign leaves the beauty of the country out of focus to keep the powerful in the frame.

At first glance, this might appear harmless. Confidence, visibility, and leadership. But repetition turns coincidence into strategy. A quick look in the Department of Tourism (DOT)’s marketing materials reveals a consistent pattern: spotting the destination often comes second to spotting the same familiar face. When a tourism campaign consistently privileges a single personality over the country it claims to promote, the message quietly but decisively shifts. It no longer invites the world to explore the Philippines. It trains the viewers to recognize Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco as the image through which the nation must be seen.

The Philippines has 7,641 islands, yet the only thing we’re forced to look at is the same face. On the DOT’s website, the secretary frequently occupies the visual foreground— banner image, featured stories, and headline photos. The same visual hierarchy appears in official newsletters and promotional releases, where her image often leads before the sites, communities, or experiences being promoted. Across platforms, the country becomes context rather than centerpiece, reinforcing a campaign language that revolves around a figure more than a place.

What makes this branding choice even more difficult to ignore is that it comes at a time when the country’s tourism performance is struggling to meet expectations. According to Business World, visitor arrivals in the Philippines were recorded at 5.235 million in January to November this year, 2.16 percent lower than 5.35 million registered during the same period in 2024.

Tourism marketing lives and dies by what it chooses to highlight. Successful campaigns understand that destinations sell themselves through texture and truth. In effective tourism marketing, the lead roles are clear: local faces, imperfect streets, traditions, and lived experiences. They invite curiosity by decentralizing the narrative. In contrast, a campaign that keeps returning to the same polished image feels disconnected from the very communities tourism is meant to uplift.

This misalignment matters, particularly as tourism competition within ASEAN intensifies. Travelers today, even myself, are not drawn to authority figures or officialdom. They respond to stories grounded in place. Neighboring countries have learned to step out of the frame, letting markets, coastlines, and communities speak for themselves. When promotion instead becomes overly curated and personality-driven, it shifts the focus from the destination’s soul to an official’s personal brand.

Maybe a recognizable figure can signal trust, continuity, or vision. It is fair to acknowledge that public officials and tourism leaders have a role to play in shaping campaigns and lending credibility to national promotion. But visibility should never overshadow the real subject. Officials, at best, are narrators. Destinations carry the story, culture provides the depth, and communities deliver the emotional weight. Leadership in tourism succeeds not when the spotlight lingers on one person, but when it illuminates the places and people the nation is built upon.

The cost of this approach is borne not by the campaign materials but by the communities left unseen. Every frame dominated by one figure is a frame that could have amplified a lesser-known province, a local tradition, a livelihood dependent on tourism's reach. A tourism campaign that truly believes in the beauty of the country does not need to keep inserting its architect into the picture.

The country does not need to be introduced by a recurring face. It needs to be seen, in full, without obstruction. Until places and people are allowed to reclaim the lead role, the Philippines will remain visible, promoted, and unmistakably out of focus.

The Frontman