Tourism secretary Christina Garcia Frasco told CNN Philippines the department was conducting an “exhaustive investigation” into the video and that no public money was spent on producing the advert.
“The use of foreign stock footage in a campaign promoting the Philippines is highly inappropriate and contradictory to the DOT’s objectives,” read a statement from the Department of Tourism.
Frasco said the ad agency, “repeatedly assured the DOT that the originality and ownership of all materials are in order”.
The video which was part of the Love the Philippines campaign was pulled from social media this weekend.
The unusual choice of stock footage was brought to attention by Filipino blogger Sass Rogando Sasot.
Sasot blasted the national tourism board firstly for using stock footage which was available for free, instead of commissioning new imagery in the Philippines, and secondly for using five shots which were filmed in the wrong country.
He also blamed the advert “Love Philippines” for being unoriginal and derivative of other national tourism campaigns.
The video was part of a campaign that launched last month, costing a reported $1,500,000.
DDB issued its own statement this weekend, calling the footage “highly inappropriate” but claiming that use of stock footage was standard practice.
There were 2.7 million inbound tourists to the Philippines in 2022, down 68 per cent from pre-pandemic levels, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation data.
