TOKYO, Japan — Department of Tourism Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay said the agency is eyeing BINI as a tourism ambassador following the group’s historic performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California.

Angara-Mathay, who joined Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during his four-day state visit to Japan, said the offer had already been relayed to the group, although BINI has yet to respond.

“We are so proud of them for their Coachella stint, and we congratulated them, of course. We always put value on our talents for waving our flag on the international stage. We are just waiting for them to come back,” Angara-Mathay said during an interview at the Filipino community meeting held at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

Focus on domestic tourism

Meanwhile, the tourism chief said the DoT is shifting greater focus toward domestic tourism, which she said generates four times more revenue than foreign tourist arrivals.

“By June, we will launch a domestic tourism campaign, and we have spoken to some hotel and restaurant stakeholders to give discounted packages to our returning balikbayans and domestic tourists,” she said.

“Our slogan is ‘Love the Philippines,’ and we can actually spin that message where we can convey to Filipinos how to love their own. It’s not an entirely new campaign but a sort of revitalization of the slogan,” she added.

Angara-Mathay said she does not believe a change in leadership automatically requires a new tourism slogan.

“We just have to tweak differently and make it adjusted to the needs of the times and the sentiments of the people, or spin the narrative into a highly relatable one,” she said.

The tourism chief added that the government remains conservative with its foreign tourist target of 5.8 million arrivals this year, slightly higher than the 5.4 million recorded in 2025.

“Once the situation abroad dies down or stabilizes, then our numbers will improve. Given our natural resources, we will compete very well,” she said.

Angara-Mathay also noted discrepancies between electronic travel records and immigration figures, saying some balikbayans are not reflected in the official tourism arrival count.

According to the Bureau of Immigration, 4.21 million international arrivals were recorded in the first quarter of 2026, while the DoT logged 2.295 million tourist arrivals in the first four months of the year.