Singapore's leading English-language broadsheet, The Straits Times, came out with a 48-page special for the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) Travel 2007 Exhibition.
Entitled "You are what you wear," it featured the different clothes people don and what it says about their culture, beliefs and traditions. The costumes are from 23 tourist destinations with a short write-up to help the reader decide on where to spend their next holiday. Here's a list of the those that were included:- Older than Forbidden City (China)
- Live it up in Hong Kong
- Fell at home in Taiwan
- Intoxicating Maldives
- Seoul's sensuous soul (Korea)
- Pure bliss in hot bath (Japan)
- Dayak's jungle escapade (Sarawak, Malaysia)
- Incredibly magical (India)
- Gold and goodness (Myanmar)
- Calm beyond Angkor Wat (Cambodia)
- Charms of the Mekong (Vietnam)
- Get high in Gold Coast Fever (Australia)
- Canberra's delights (Australia)
- Tassie's treasures (Australia)
- A slice of history (Alsace, Germany)
- London calling
- Brighton your day (UK)
- Arty City of festivals (Scotland)
- Paris preserves the soul
- Hip frisco never grows old (San Francisco, USA)
- Viva Vancouver (Canada)
- Catch the colours of Mexico
My point is: the Philippines is not there. I just feel bad. I'm a Filipino, and the Philipines not being included in a 48-page newspaper spread featuring other ASEAN (not Asian, to be more specific) countries as tourist destinations.
I'm not blaming the Straits Times. They know very well what their readers want. I'm not blaming the NATAS. They know where Singaporeans where to go for their holidays. I'm not blaming the Phlippines government. The Philippine Tourism Office here in Singapore was able to secure an exhibition booth (thank goodness they thought of that).
If you're in Singapore, please visit the Philippine booth.
I'll put the blame on you if you won't go there. hehehe...
The NATAS Travel 2007 exhibition runs from Mar 23-25 at the Suntec Exhibition Centre.
I'm not blaming the Straits Times. They know very well what their readers want. I'm not blaming the NATAS. They know where Singaporeans where to go for their holidays. I'm not blaming the Phlippines government. The Philippine Tourism Office here in Singapore was able to secure an exhibition booth (thank goodness they thought of that).
If you're in Singapore, please visit the Philippine booth.
I'll put the blame on you if you won't go there. hehehe...
The NATAS Travel 2007 exhibition runs from Mar 23-25 at the Suntec Exhibition Centre.
19 comments:
nakakalungkot naman yan... hmm....
Mahina kasi ang appeal ng Pilipinas sa ngayon dahil na rin sa current issue sa atin.
how sad..
it's really disappointing, politicians promises to put Philippines on the map but they do so with their corrupt system..
hey, at least nasali yung Pilipinas sa Most Corrupt Country.. :P
worse news..
Nakakalungkot talaga.
errr.. thats sooo disappointing! why in the world wala ang Pinas sa magazinee? did they do that on purpose? -_-
Blame it on the terrorist threats.
The whole world knows where the terrorists that attacked WTC plotted their attack.
Aw boo-hoo. I hate to sound like a sour grape(and I am being one), but Big Deal if we didn't make it to some paper's "exclusive" list.
In any case, it's their loss. Come to think of it, Singapore really isn't that big a nation. In terms of tourist arrivals, we're prolly talking about pennies if we compare it to the number of Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, and Americans coming into the country every year.
In fairness to our Tourism Department, I think they're doing a heck of a good job promoting RP as an A1 diving destination and ESL-learning hub.
I guess their being bias to a famous country and people are evident most of the time.
And they are not alone. Many of them (countries) are.
They do not know what they are missing.
I have traveled some in Philippines. I enjoyed being there and would love to go there more often and I regularly recommend Philippines to my friends traveling through SE Asia.
I do not find it surprising that there are not many tourists in Philippines compared to other South East Asian countries.
On average the budget hotels in Philippines is more expensive compared to Thailand or Vietnam or even Malaysia.
Also, there is no community travel web like Travelfish (Lao, Cambodia, Vietnam) or Indiamike for Philippines.
Most other SE Asian countries offer visa on arrival for people from India and China (2 of the biggest tourism arrivals in some of SEA nations). Philippines seems to be slow in realizing this. There is also a hefty "visa processing fee" that is not listed on the Embassy web site in a transparent manner. This by itself is not a problem but it prevents me from making a trip on impulse if I have a long weekend.
There are not many cheap flights to the Philippines from Bangkok. Bangkok is the backpacker hub in region. If you want more tourists, you got to run a budget flight from Bangkok.
Ivan Heneras, a heritage blogger from the Philippines, highlighted some of these issues on his blog.
http://ivanhenares.blogspot.com/2006/05/blog-o-rama-ivan-on-backpacking.html
Seems the link to Ivan's blog gets snipped. Try this
http://tinyurl.com/yuflje
Thanks for you insights Preetam Rai. Indeed there are a lot of things that are not in place for Philippine tourism to be more competitive, at least in the region. I'll put up your comments as a follow-up post.
yeah sure! xlinks! :D
thanks po! yep sculm8s kmi ni paeng! ^_^
haay.. napaka unfair naman..ok lang yan.. yaan nalang natin..hehe..
very informative site you have,Bean!sorry,i digged your blog,hehe..
nasa link na pala kita ang your my fav now :)
regards!!
ghee
Philippines has a lot a nice places pero it's not that develop. At siguro takot din ang mga turista. I myself takot sa sarili kong bayan. You can't even wear jewelries ksi alam mo na ang naghihintay sayo.
Thanks for dropping by!
Wow, the Philippines wasn't on that list? That's disappointing and strange... considering that even Vancouver, Canada is on that list! I've been to Vancouver and that beautiful Canadian city is definitely populated with a lot of Asians. I'm excited that the Winter Olymnpics will be held there in approximately in 2010. I'll be there for that, for sure, since I already live in Canada. :)
Yes Fruity Oaty! The Philippines is not there. But like what Preetam Rai pointed out, there are really a lot of things that are not in place for Philippine tourism to be more competitive, at least with other SE Asian countries.
Jlois, Jhed and Agring made a scary point, which is very true. Security issues and the country's current situation hampers tourism, even local tourists are hesitant to explore the rest of the country because of this.
I agree with Adobobo and myepinoy but I think most tourists would rather miss it than lose a limb or a loved one, if not their own lives.
Ouch! Wala ang pinakamagndang P'nas? :( sad nman. hehehe.. :)
cge po link ex. linked u na. ;)
lol! anong kanin pinagsasabi mo dyan? uy lapit na ko alis ng singapore iwan na kita huhuhuhuhuhuhu!
Post a Comment