Tourism: Perception matters

Exactly a year ago, everyone thought that the tourism industry in Bohol was dead when a band of local terrorists (the Abu Sayyaf) went to the island, through the Inabanga River, on the second week of April. The decisiveness, however, of the police and the military and the utmost cooperation of the local government executives as well as the local community prevented such huge economic disaster from happening.

Today, Bohol is in its usual business mode again. Simply put, it has totally recovered. To think that before the Abu Sayyaf came Bohol was one of the hotbeds of insurgency in the Visayas, the island’s success in tourism is truly remarkable.

The same, however, cannot be said of Surigao del Sur, well, for the time being. As we all know, Surigao del sur is one of the country’s provinces that is at the receiving end of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) atrocities. To recall, in November last year, a bloody encounter between the NPAs and the elements of the 75th Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army took place in Barangay Diatagon, Lianga and Buhisan, San Agustin.

Sadly, though such encounter happened only in the mountains of these two adjacent municipalities, until today, the perception that the entire province of Surigao del Sur is so dangerous for residents and tourists alike still pervade. So that, last weekend, while local tourists (me, together with some friends, included) came in droves and took a dip at the beautiful beaches of the islets in Britania, San Agustin, not a single foreign tourist can be found.

Tourism-wise, this development is quite frustrating.  For one, these two municipalities have two of the most beautiful sites to visit which are both far from the NPAs’ lair and so accessible.  Barangay Diatagon, Lianga, for one, has Bao-bao Falls, while Barangay Britania, San Agustin has beaches with Boracay-like sands in several islets.

Moreover, there are other towns in Surigao del Sur that have so much to offer. The Municipality of Barobo has cold springs and several islets to go to. The Municipality of Hinatuan is where the Enchanted River can be found. The Tinuy-an Falls in Bislig is just so majestic. To think that these tempting places are really far from where the NPAs are and, likewise, are so reachable, it is doubly revolting.

Agreeably though, safety is of prime importance. It is even more compelling to domestic or foreign tourists alike who aren’t familiar of the place and are just there either out of curiosity or plain leisure.

To some extent though, fear for one’s safety in a given place is real. On the other hand, however, some are mere perception. Logically, therefore, anyone with the right senses will never venture on frolicking along the shorelines in any of the islets in the Sulu Archipelago (the home of the Abu Sayyaf) no matter how tempting the serenity of its beaches may be because of the known and real notoriety of the merciless group of bandit’s kidnapping spree.

Unfortunately, no matter how far and isolated Sulu down south may be, the perception that the entire country is a lair of ruthless bandits cannot be avoided. Therefore, the thought that anyone’s life can be aborted at the bandit’s instance anywhere in the country won’t slip a tourist’s mind. Thus, for all intents and purposes, the world’s positive perception on the country’s peace and order situation is one of the prerequisites for the tourism industry to thrive.

However, while perception matters, it is so fleeting. It changes as quick and as often as we blink. Truth be told, the country has had harrowing peace and order related experiences in the past. On top of these, we have had directly tourism-related fiascos. Notably, the Dos Palmas kidnapping was the worst of all. It was perpetrated by the Abu Sayyaf on May 27, 2001.

Just like Bohol, today, Palawan’s tourism industry has fully recovered. What Palawan did was remarkable. Instead of dwelling on such sad experience, it took some steps to prevent it from happening again. Then, it made sure that their Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park will be known as one of the world’s seven wonders of nature. Located about 50 km north of the city of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, it was hardly accessible in the 1990s. Then, one has to stay overnight to reach and enjoy the place. Thus, it never brought in so much visitors. Today, they made it so accessible by constructing a road that leads to the place.

Learning from the Bohol and Palawan experiences, it is imperative that we must assure the world that their citizens’ safety is our primordial concern. Secondly, we have to continue to develop more innovative products, services and places of interests. Lastly, we need to build more infrastructures to make our products or tourist destinations more accessible.