DOT-7 revives “Bring Home a Friend”program

With just about a month until Christmas Day, the Department of Tourism in Central Visayas (DOT-7) will soon be relaunching its Bring Home a Friend (BHAF) Program that aims to further increase the influx of foreigners.

“The program has been revived to encourage Filipinos residing here and abroad plus expatriates based in the Philippines, to help in promoting Philippine tourism by inviting their foreign friends to come and visit the country,” said Judilyn Quezon, DOT-7 Supervising Tourism Operations Officer, in a text interview.

Although the program officially started last October 15, Quezon has clarified to The FREEMAN that the launching of the program in Cebu will start by December all the way until April 15, 2018.

The BHAF Program offers prize incentives to participating locals and foreign tourists alike.

Filipino sponsors may register online at the official website of the program and may be allowed to invite as many friends as they wish.

Invitees who then accept the offer must travel within that specific period and the registration process will be completed after they have travelled.

Then, an electronic coupon will be forwarded to the invitees where they will be given a number of entries depending on their point of origin (e.g. Asia, Middle East, North America).

The top 3 prizes for Filipino “sponsors” include a studio condo unit at Eastwood Le Grand Tower in Quezon City (first prize), the 2017 Toyota Vios (second prize), and P200,000 worth of gift certificates from Duty Free (third prize).

The winning “invitees” can grab a chance to win the following: two roundtrip international business class tickets plus two roundtrip domestic tickets to Palawan (first prize), two roundtrip international premium economy tickets plus two roundtrip domestic tickets to Cebu (second prize), and two roundtrip international economy tickets plus two roundtrip domestic tickets to Davao (third prize).

This program, first launched in 1994 by former Tourism Secretary Mina Gabor, designed to encourage the locals to invite their friends and families of other nationalities to experience the wonders the Philippines has to offer.

“We encourage everyone to invite their friends and relatives who are already foreign citizens,” Quezon added.

Full details of the BHAF program can be checked out at their official Facebook page or their official website.

Data gathered from the DOT-7 office indicates that out of the 932,000 foreign visitor arrivala as of May 2017, 40 percent or 335,000 of them are from Korea while 19 percent or 157,000 are from Japan and China.

Andre Que, USC Intern/JBB