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Former Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Jr., the man who spearheaded the “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” campaign, died today of as yet unknown reasons. He was 64.
Current Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat mourned Jimenez’s passing in a statement, where she wrote, “On behalf of the officials and employees of the Department of Tourism (DOT), I would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the bereaved loved ones of former Tourism Secretary Ramon ‘Mon’ Jimenez, Jr. who recently passed away.”
Romulo-Puyat lauded the late former secretary’s contributions to the DOT, including leading what is arguably the most popular tourism campaign in the country. Romulo-Puyat said she kept Jimenez’s beloved slogan when she took the helm of the DOT.
“The DOT family pays tribute to the immeasurable contributions of Secretary Jimenez who laid down the foundation for the country’s most famous tourism campaign, ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines,’ which I have chosen to retain until now, and the DOT policies that helped shape the National Tourism Development Program (NTDP) for 2016-2022.”
“Today, we mourn the loss of Mon Jimenez but we will be forever grateful to him for the growth of the tourism sector, and for promoting the Philippines as a place that is wonderful, joyous, and fun.”
The #ItsMoreFunInthePhilippines campaign was launched in 2012, which urged local and foreign travelers to use the hashtag to show what made traveling to the archipelago personally exciting for them.
Jimenez acutely understood employing people’s individual perspectives on travel through the social media landscape.
“Social media has become of late, the single most powerful force in travel, or at least the single most powerful influence in travel. That’s because nobody’s willing to take just one person’s word for it. People tend to validate their ideas with people who have had similar experiences, people who have had more experiences, and they often refer to more than just one opinion,” the late secretary said in an interview at a 2016 travel conference.
“So vloggers gathering in one place, forming their opinions about the Philippines for example and its potentials is going to be a tremendous platform. Something which we have been looking for for a long time.”
Jimenez was an alumnus at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, where he completed a degree in Fine Arts majoring in Visual Communications. He was one of the country’s top advertising executives, working for ad agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, where he worked with brand giants like Jollibee, San Miguel Beer, and Cebu Pacific.
He is survived by his two daughters, Nina and Sassa Jimenez, who both work in the creative industry.
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