Tourism hotspot

Some things I’ve noticed in my recent trips abroad, particularly in Asia: service robots are becoming ubiquitous. One rolled by itself into the elevator with me at the hotel where I stayed in Chongqing, to deliver room service.

Also, there’s growing use of language translation apps. While not fully accurate, they get the message across. I got the battery in my room safety deposit box replaced and handwash soap delivered, even if the hotel housekeeping staff spoke no English and I spoke no Mandarin.

While both developments are good for travelers, they can affect demand for human workers, particularly English-speaking migrants such as Filipinos. We have to be ready for this shift.

A trend that we can embrace is the creative use of modern lighting, which can turn even a drab warehouse into a tourist attraction at night.

Paris saw the importance of extensive public street lighting way back in 1667, and pioneered the use of gas for streetlamps in the 19th century, making the French capital known as the “City of Light.”

But high-tech Asian countries have taken lighting to cutting-edge levels, using high resolution LED displays on building facades and in nature parks. The results can be breathtaking.

In our country, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno saw the importance of street lighting, not only for public safety but also for aesthetics, correctly figuring that the investment in power costs is worth it. Dark areas in the city favored by muggers and streetwalkers were turned into nighttime promenades. But there’s still a wide room for improvement all around.

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Also ubiquitous in Chongqing are modern public toilets. The upgrade started in 2002, and was ramped up as part of a nationwide Chinese “Toilet Revolution” from 2015 to 2020. This is something we need across the country.

Bright lights and a vibrant and safe night life (uniformed cops and patrol cars are ubiquitous in Chongqing day and night) enhance the travel experience. These are low-hanging fruits in improving the environment for tourists.

We’re midway through a year of chairing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, during which we are hosting two ASEAN summits plus ministerial meetings in Cebu and Manila.

I’m not sure though if we’ve been able to maximize our turn at the rotating chairship of ASEAN, in terms of efforts to boost tourism – an area where we’ve progressively fallen behind our regional neighbors.

Industry players have said that any tourism marketing effort must be matched by the development of the tourism infrastructure, along with systemic reforms to make visiting the Philippines as seamless as possible and memorable in the best way.

In my brief visit last week to Chongqing, I was impressed by the way it has positioned itself for tourism.

As China reopened to visitors after the pandemic, Chongqing began generating a growing multimedia buzz as a cool new travel destination.

Visitors were enchanted by the multilayered architecture of both the ultramodern and traditional structures built into steep rock walls, including a residential apartment building through which a monorail passes regularly.

The style was made necessary by its mountainous terrain. During World War II, air raid shelters were also carved out deep into some parts of the mountain. Visitors were fascinated, describing the overall effect as cyberpunk.

As the travel buzz intensified post-pandemic, the Chongqing government seized the moment. Last year, it rolled out a comprehensive lighting plan for its central urban areas, using creative LED lighting on buildings particularly those by the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers, and developing viewing spots for the light display.

Visitors can enjoy the display through a river cruise or on foot. At night, there’s barely room to move at one of the top tourist spots, the Hongyadong or Hongya Cave, an 11-story traditional stilt-house complex hugging the cliffside along the Jialing River. Ethereal with gold illumination at night, Hongyadong has been turned into a vibrant commercial area. It features hotpot restaurants in the old wartime bomb shelters.

This kind of development is possible along the Pasig River, if we can get the diverse interests on board. OK, that’s a huge IF.

Not content with the regular light display, Chongqing gained Guinness World Record recognition in June last year, for a drone light show that featured 11,787 drones.

The municipality, which is really the size of a province, is blessed with natural attractions, foremost of which is Mount Jinfo or Golden Buddha Mountain, 6,890 feet above sea level – a drive of two-and-a-half hours from the downtown area.

Jinfo’s Ancient Buddha Cave – a natural karst cavern said to be the largest (about 20,000 square kilometers) and highest in China – features several massive Buddha statues and 1,250 small statues of Arhats or spiritually perfected persons. The cavern, formed 6.5 million years ago, was used as a shelter for thousands of Chinese during the Japanese invasion and World War II, and served as a hub for manufacturing weapons.

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In tourism, packaging goes a long way. On a drizzly Thursday last week, a large crowd gathered on the sidewalk in front of a residential apartment building in Chongqing, smartphones at the ready for selfies and photos of what has become a top tourist attraction: a train that goes through the sixth to eighth floors of the building.

This is the Liziba Station, on Line 2 of the Chongqing Rail Transit. Tourists can ride the air-conditioned CRT monorail, which offers great views of the riverside, and stop by the souvenir shops going up to the station.

Looking back at the experience, I thought the building, whose construction was integrated simultaneously into the CRT, was just like an ordinary train station.

There’s a downtown commercial shopping district that offers foreign travelers instant tax refund. Chongqing’s international airport is world-class, with ever-increasing connectivity. A direct flight (three-and-a-half hours) between Manila and Chongqing was launched last May 1 by Air China.

Combined with the traditional attractions outside the urban center, plus China’s visa-free entry and liberal visa-free transit schemes launched in December 2023, Chongqing has become a tourism hotspot.

There are many tourism success stories around the world from which we can gain inspiration. Our country has so much to offer to travelers, and there should be no reason for us to be left behind.