New places, new adventures

As you read this, we should be all packed for our annual exploration trip tomorrow, and we are certainly excited about what we’re facing.

As usual, it is another family vacation, one I am taking with my wife Baby and my brother Rey and his family (wife Evelyn and youngest daughter Ina who just graduated from high school). My own grown kids are tied up with work and can’t take time off, which saddens me greatly because they have missed out on the last two years’ trips that took us to several cities in Europe. Opportunities lost! But I guess they’ll have it in their own time.

This time, though, we are taking time out from our usual destinations in the European continent (Europe remains my great love), and taking in not only new routes and new sights but new cultures as well. Our itinerary this year takes us to Greece, a first time for all of us in the group, then on to Turkey, to Israel, and the last stop in this two-week sojourn is historic Jordan.

Our first stop is Athens. If you have read a previous column, I had the pleasure of personally interviewing the current Ambassador of Greece to the Philippines, H.E. Constantina Koliou for our television show Business & Leisure where we have a regular segment, Embassy Row. It was a friendly and comfortable interview we had with the lady ambassador whom I found most gracious and accommodating. In the course of the interview, I mentioned that we were in the midst of preparing for our family’s forthcoming visit to Greece for the first time and the kind ambassador was very helpful and supportive.

Because she would like more Filipinos to know more about her beloved country, we have arranged a special feature on Greece to be shown upon our return from the trip. As I said, none of us in the group have ever gone to Greece, so we really do not know where to begin. The Greek embassy’s head of the consular section, Mr. Angelos Tsaousidis, and Mr. Nikolaos Verghis were just as helpful, and we had initial discussions on where to go and what not to miss when we land in Athens. The major islands, for sure are not to be missed (if our three days and two nights would permit us) like Mykounos and Santorini, and others that are not so familiar to us but are established tourist attractions in their own right.  The ladies in the group are thrilled no end at the prospect of sailing, by speed boat or go yachting (wish ko lang!)  to these islands—the isles of Greece have been so romanticized in songs and novels, and Hollywood itself has glorified these sun-drenched isles. And if only for these, Greece is certainly worth the holiday. Greece, by the way, has over 6,000 islands and islets.

Tourism in Greece is something we can only marvel at and dream of. Imagine that for a country with a population of 11 million, they had 17 million tourists registered in 2012. That we could have more tourists than the local populace, but that would mean close to 200 million people crowding our archipelago, so that won’t do. Just shooting for DOT’s (Department of Tourism) target of 10 million would really be an awesome feat, considering how our tourism has been faring in the last few years. No worries, we are slowly but surely getting there, and our new marketing-oriented team at the DOT led by Secretary Mon Jimenez has been kept busy of late, I am told.

The Greek embassy through their gracious lady Ambassador Madame Constantina Koliou has very kindly arranged for a tour guide for us while in Greece, and arranged transportation and a driver as well for our group of five. I just received confirmation from Capt. Kostas Calafatis, principal’s representative of Technomar Crew Management Corporation that a mini bus has been arranged for us for the whole trip through the Kosmos Rent-a-Car, a Mercedes Vito 2.0cc diesel, no less. The rental company has been in the car rental business since 1977 and has earned a reputation throughout Greece as reliable and efficient. I guess you won’t last in the business that long if you do not rank among the best in the lot. Their confirmation letter is very thorough, complete with telephone numbers to contact in case of unforeseen circumstances, contact persons, full name of assigned driver, which exits to look for, etc.—very thorough indeed.

The travel industry in the Philippines reports a surge, both inbound and outbound, and the industry is hale and hearty again. Summer is usually the peak travel months, when the kids are out of school and we hope to escape the suffocating heat back home. As big as the tourism industry of Greece is, it is curious to note that only about 2,000 Filipinos came to Greece for a holiday last year, a miniscule percentage of their total inbound tourists. Asian visitors accounted for about 30 percent of the 17 million tourists, but only 2,000 of this was from the Philippines. Through our upcoming feature on Athens and other major cities as well as the romantic isles of Greece, we hope to create awareness of what Greece has to offer, its ancient culture that is still visible in their contemporary life, their unique cuisine as well as the various tourist destinations in that country. Hopefully, it will entice more Filipino travelers to visit this friendly country known as the “Cradle of Western Civilization,” a country that has used the same language for over 2,500 years. Watch for it on Business and Leisure, the television show and this column.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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