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Friday, August 08, 2003
Dakudao: Travel writers rebuild Davao image abroad
"TRAVEL writers are what we need to rebuild our image abroad," former Tourism 11 chief and current director for Philippine Department of Tourism in Toronto, Canada Catalina Santos Dakudao said Wednesday.
Dakudao suggested the country should invite more travel writers and "make them write about the positive side of our country, especially Davao".
This, she said could tone down the perception of chaos that foreigners believe to be happening regularly in Mindanao, including Davao.
"We really have to bombard them with positive information. Why? Because they (foreigners) rely only on the information from media outlets that are more often, exaggerated," she said.
Her recommendation colludes with SKAL president George Walter Misa's idea to reserve 20 seats to Philippine Airlines (PAL) international flights especially for magazine and travel writers overseas.
A string of problems, starting from the Davao airport and seaport blasts, to Fathur Roman al- Ghozi's escape and the recent Makati mutiny, have not helped polish the country's image, even if Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon stressed that "the way the mutiny was handled was a boost to the sector".
Dakudao said Canada issued a travel advisory to some of the areas in the Philippines, including Davao, "for security reasons" on July 23.
But the Filipino Canadians have pledged to support the Tourism's advocacy for image rebuilding, she said.
The DOT office in Canada was established only last April 2 and have already been swamped with queries from Canadians and Filipinos who are planning to visit the country. CEU
(August 8, 2003 issue)
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