Photo fails in paradise is a social media campaign launched to encourage more tourists to visit the Philippines again. The campaign called for tourists’ worst travel photos—from badly cropped and photobombed to mom’s-giant-thumb-in-the-face. The best (worst) pictures were rewarded with a free ticket back to the Philippines.

Most tourism campaigns try hard to make their country look idyllic, showcasing tourist sites with only the best photographers. But we think our slice of paradise can’t take a bad picture. Not even with the world’s worst photographers. So we launched Photo Fails in Paradise, a social media campaign that asked tourists to share and post their photobombed, thumb-in-the-face, caught-in-the-surf photos in the Philippines for a chance to win a free trip back. This got tourists to look back on their old photos, reminding them of the country’s unfiltered beauty and the many sites they could visit once again. It also got travellers to share credible content about the Philippines, driving tourism awareness.

We received thousands of entries from all around the world. Throughout the course of the campaign, there was a significant increase in awareness or searches of terms relating to the Philippines online. Social mentions around “visit Philippines” grew by 242% versus the previous period. Interest towards the Philippines grew as seen in an increase of search queries by 7% and social mentions by 16 times!