It is never free though...the minister said it came from in-house designer. Think about how much the inflated salary they are taking every month and design such a mediocre logo, and probably a few things here and there. Definitely a lot more expensive than it would be if it is an open tender/competition.

Also when you say free, it still means you think price > value. For something like a logo which is an important component in promoting tourism, and henceforth bringing in money to the economy, the value being generated is much more important than the price tag. That being said, as a person, how the design of a campaign logo has very little influence over my decision to visit the country or not, because this is not a business branding. When you google a country/city and the first thing showed up are the actual images of interest to tourists. But when you google the name of the business, I would say the branding would influence whether I would visit or use their services. Same thing, if you put little effort in making your branding, I think you are putting lesser effort in your product/business.