MANILA, (PNA) –Whatever happened to the image Zamboanga had of its colorful vintas? Its pink sand beaches? Its Chavacano-speaking people?
Sadly, Zamboanga is now notorious for being a military area and a hostage-taking zone, although it could be much more than the news reveals, said tourism officials in an interview.
Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said that despite all the negative press Zamboanga was getting, he would still consider the country a safe place to visit and even plans to promote tourism in the city to reshape its image.
“We are not the most unsafe place for tourists,” Jimenez said. “The Philippines is just as safe as any other place in Asia.”
“We are determined to put together a program to make Mindnanao even more attractive,” he added. “It is news that shapes its image. There should be more promotions.”
Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) chief operating officer, Domingo Ramon “Chicoy” Enerio III meanwhile said that what happened in one city immediately affects the whole region, but there was a way to change that.
Enerio said that the TPB can start with tactical campaigns that will carry more images, have more articles written about and create audio-visual presentations that feature Mindanao.
“We always show beaches in Boracay (and) a lot of people know about it already,” Enerio said. “(But we) can (also) talk about surfing opportunities in Siargao or ethnic encounters in Davao.”
“There will be more conscious effort to showcase what we Filipinos are proud of in the Island of Mindanao,” he added.
He also explained that as far as the budget for Mindanao tourism is concerned, the budget will be coming from local government units (LGUs) with support, of course, from the Department of Tourism (DOT).
“LGUs are becoming more and more aware of the need for them to become partners with us in promoting themselves, ultimately they will benefit from it as well,” Enerio said.
He explained that the DOT was not looking for grants in promotions but in other areas like training and development like standardizing accommodation facilities all over the Philippines.
“There have been a lot of statements made by congressmen from Mindanao about the need to allocate greater shares of budget to infrastructure development,” Enerio said.
The DOT along with the departments of public works and highways and of transportation and communications have already heard them out.
As for the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao or ARMM, Enerio said the DOT will respect its autonomy but will always be willing to be of assistance in terms of technical advice.
“It would be very nice to look at ARMM as a market itself and try to develop intra-regional tourism,” he said. “Those from Sulu can go to Tawi-Tawi and the people from Tawi-Tawi can go to Basilan.
“It’s the first painful step we have to take,” he added. “What we have to do is take the first few painful steps, it cannot be a long jump—you have to promote first what you have within your own region.”
The TPB head said that it will take a little bit of effort from the national government to assist but at the moment, the priority was to make sure people are safe and they return to normal before the DOT starts planning how to promote tourism in Zamboanga.
“There is an image that stands alone from that in the news,” Enerio said. “We were not able to give emphasis on images that we want to increase.”
He stressed that it will take time to change Zamboanga’s image but once it is ready and everyone has settled, the DOT can start developing a better representation of Zamboanga.