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Monday, June 26, 2006
Amante: Tourist traps
By Isolde A. Amante
Peryodistang Pinay
TRAVEL writers scrambling to beat their deadlines often resort to one of the craft’s ink-stained clichés, the destination’s name followed by an exclamation mark. But the travel industry’s players, it seems, are tolerant of such perennially breathless prose.
What they can’t stand—or so I’ve been told—are “hard news” editors who splash a crime story on the front page. If I had a peso for every time a resort manager or a travel agency operator asked why the media tend to spotlight crime, I’d have enough to charter a plane to the ends of the archipelago, and there produce an article titled “Batanes!” or “Thrilling Tawi-Tawi!”
So, yes, you could say I didn’t exactly relish the prospect of joining a media-tourism dialogue during last Thursday’s Tourism Congress. But duty called. Besides, it was also a good opportunity to say that, our reputation for mischief notwithstanding, most of us in the media do think we play a part in propping up local industries and the economy.
Media can spotlight activities or destinations, for instance, which helps create the market for tourism. You’ll see this in travel supplements and “soft news” feature articles (with or without those exclamation points).
More importantly, media space provides a venue where the industry can discuss what needs doing or putting in place, for tourism to succeed in the long haul. Issues vital to tourism’s survival, such as sustainability and heritage conservation, cannot be ignored. “A world awash in tourists can be a curse for its endangered treasures,” Newsweek reports in its Travel 2006 special, “or a source of funds to save them.”
The World Tourism Organization reports that 38 percent of all countries rely on tourism as their main source of foreign exchange. But this largesse exacts a price. In some places, tourism creates enclaves where locals are shut out, if not through actual fences (such as illegal structures common in Cebu’s beaches), then by impossible prices.
And this is one more role that media can play. We can talk about what trade-offs we are willing to live with, in our desire to attract more tourists. If not managed properly, the tourism industry itself is one of the largest threats to its survival. Or as Henry Schumacher, director of the European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines, asked: “What kind of tourists do we want?”
Our role in media is to provide the information that travelers need to keep unpredictability at bay, from weather reports to accurate directions to reach off-the-beaten-track festivals. Yet we cannot keep out an accurate reading of local realities, such as a lack of critical infrastructure, or a nagging peace and order problem. For as proud as we are of our community, we cannot create only false, postcard-perfect pictures of it. Unlike tourists, we cannot “get away from it all.” We have to live with it.
(http://www.peryodistang-pinay.blogspot.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 26, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
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