LAST week, a friend and I had good discourse about tourism on Facebook. He maintains that we, residents of Baguio and La Trinidad, should not complain about the traffic brought about by the influx of tourist because it helps many people and we should not turn them away. I maintain that I can rant about this phenomenon.
Of course, his stand comes from the fact that he works at the Tourism Office of a municipality near Baguio. I have always known him as someone who is somewhat indifferent regarding these matters, but apparently he has become more passionate about this lately.
For my end, I have always been firm on my stand regarding how the city and other LGUs handle tourism. I come from the academe, and I belong to the pool of professors in the Graduate Program of a local university and I get to read a lot of scholarly work and action researches regarding tourism. I get to travel, albeit not as much anymore, to various places in the Philippines and abroad, both for work and pleasure. The personal travels are of course from my own resources. These are the bases of my stance regarding tourism.
If your travels are due to a work assignment where your finances are from the taxes people pay or from the company you work in, then I believe, you don’t experience being a true tourist because your pockets won’t hurt as much.
When the TPLEX constructed, it made the travel to Baguio much faster. The tri-expressway travel will only take an average of 4 hours, a much faster travel than when someone from Marikina would go to Muntinlupa, through C5 or EDSA, which would take 5 and a half hours. If one coming from the northern (or even at the middle) part of Metro Manila to go to Tagaytay or Baguio, just basing it on travel time, the most immediate choice would be Baguio. This is the reason why during long weekends and holidays, all year round, for the past 3 years, the influx of tourists is getting higher and higher, than it used to.
My friend’s premise is that we cannot just prohibit people from coming to our place. But the thing is we cannot also permit them to just come and come and come and come, just because the city and the municipality and the province are gaining ACCOUNTING PROFIT, without regard for the environment and care for the residents.
There is a spike in pollution during these weekends and holidays with the increase of vehicles plying our streets. The tourists bring their own vehicles, that is why. There is also the garbage problem. Both the city of Baguio and the municipality of La Trinidad have garbage problems as it is. There are many tourists who are very irresponsible in disposing of their garbage without segregating, in the wrong places. It is evident in Burnham Park, where most of their vehicles park, and after they leave, they also leave mountains of garbage where they parked.
One more thing with regard to the environment is on the carrying capacity of the Baguio and La Trinidad. Baguio was designed for a lesser population, while La Trinidad’s greater area should be for agricultural purposes. With more tourists, the number of people within a given area is already exceeding the limits of it carrying capacity. If one were to ask Urban Developers, there are many disadvantages of exceeding the carrying capacity. I do not claim urban development expertise, but I’ve read and heard of these disadvantages.
Next, looking at the ACCOUNTING GAINS from tourism and tourism-related activities should not only be the case. We should also look at the explicit costs that are borne by the residents due to these tourism activities.
Traffic is a result of tourism. We also have to consider the man hours lost just by sitting idle in the vehicle or the effort exerted walking long lengths due to traffic congestion. Businessmen also lose a lot from traffic because the shelf life of their products are consumed when in traffic rather than if they are displayed on the shelves. The deliveries are delayed and delay is loss on the part of the business.
These are things that are not considered by the brilliant minds in government service. All they think is that there are high numbers recorded in the books of the LGU, which is very sad. There are many ECONOMISTS in the city, some with PhDs, some with specialization on urban development, environment and natural resources, yet, these LGUs rely on the expertise of what, LAWYERS, whose of course focus just what is the letter of the law. “Wen, mabalin latta, legal met.”
We cannot shun them explicitly, but make our city and the municipality beside it valuable. According to a scholarly work I read, the people coming to our city are poor tourists. Those that rely on the ukay they can buy in Harrison Road at night, and who buy viands in plastic bags which they can consume on paper plates, with plastic spoons and forks, and styrofoam cups, which they will dispose of in the sidewalk after they eat. It hurts to read this but it is true. If you don’t believe me, go down from your lofty tower in the shitty hole, er City Hall, and find out for yourself.
A friend of that friend gave as an example what was done in Venice, Equador, Taj Mahal, etc. only to be shut down by my friend by saying, maybe it can be applicable in smaller areas like in John Hay or Mansion House, but not a whole city or town. For which the other one answer, Venice is a city, Equador is a country.
It’s just that these government people are so focused on the actual money coming in, that they forgot about being creative, innovative and courageous, and to be frank about it, they forgot to THINK. Maybe because their pockets are so full that their brains have been emptied out.
POLITICAL WILL is what is lacking. I have many suggestions that can help solve it, so with the other THINKING scholars within the city and municipality. You just have to have the BALLS to ask them and believe them. It is scary at first, but we are backed up by centuries old THEORIES and LAWS, that was proven time and time again to be true, so there’s no need to worry. Brains trump brawns, everytime. Don’t forget that.