EDITORIAL - Just what is the Phl tourism initiative?

Does it not strike you as odd that the only thing related to tourism anyone has heard since the Aquino administration came to power more than a year ago was that flap about Chinese writers ganging up on no less than Aquino’s own brother-in-law on board a Cebu-bound plane?

Turn on your TV and skim through the channels. Chances are you will find commercials by different national tourism boards promoting not just visits but investment opportunities in their respective countries.

Sadly not a blip is seen nor a peep heard about tourism in the Philippines. Columnist Bobit Avila is right in wondering why Aquino has not yet fired Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim. For an industry that is a vital cog to our economy, tourism is certainly getting short-changed.

The Philippines is a very beautiful country. But it is not the only country in the world that is beautiful. When God made the world, he distributed beauty everywhere. With so much beauty in the world, it is only prudent to call attention to ourselves if we want to be seen.

Consider a beautiful woman. Her beauty will not find her man if she locks herself up in her room. Or take a precious work of art. You will not do it justice if you just store it unappreciated in the darkness of a vault.

Tourism is not a waiting game. It is a promotional enterprise. You have to go and get your clientele. In fact, with so many global attractions, the success of any national tourism initiative is measured by its ability to snatch clientele away from the others.

To be sure, there have been hugely successful tourism campaigns in the past. But we just cannot sit forever on our laurels. Every year, young people all over the world come of tourism age and economic independence. In other words, there is a new tourism market born every year.

Unfortunately, the lethargic bosses at the tourism department do not seem to realize that leaving to people the decision on which places to visit is no longer how the game is played. The new rules dictate that you wrestle them to the ground right in their own homes.

The competition has become so cutthroat that it is no longer waged just at the national levels. Even cities — Dubai, Busan, Macau, to name a few — now promote themselves aggressively. Yet here we are, making ripples only when our citizens get choked by rowdy writers on planes.