Last month I got this video from a friend of mine from the Dept of Tourism in the Philippines and I sent a comment to the Emails of the Dept. here in the US, which has remained unanswered. We have the natural beauties to succeed as a tourist a mecca but needs a lot of infrastructure developments and government support to take full advantage of these assets.
Feb. 22, 2012
Dept of Tourism, LA office, N.Y., Chicago, San Francisco,
I got this Email from a friend of mine, showing the latest video advertisement from the Dept of Tourism and to support the campaign. For all the natural beauty of the Philippines and the size of the country, our share of the international tourist industry is abysmal. In 2011, our share is 3.9 million while Vietnam a war torn country for two decades till 1975 has outpaced the Philippines with 6 million visitors in 2011. For the much advertised Filipino Hospitality, it seems that there are not too many takers, international tourist would rather bypass the Philippines than stay. I know there are many infrastructural shortcomings in the Philippines but some easily remediable problems can be addressed, like this video, Pilipinas, Tara Na.
The song is beautiful, the scenery, beautiful, as a Fil-Am you can gloss over the faults but for somebody who doesn't know much about the Philippines or Filipino descendants here in the US, one can only guess how they will react to the video, much less foreigners. I understand this was done on the cheap, probably for local or expats, and the performers are volunteers who have donated their time and effort to the making of the video and we have to admire them for it, but could we have not made them the focus of the video and made it more towards the beautiful scenery which were relegated on the sidelines. We don't need to see the recording studio and the cast of characters performing. They are better off heard as a background or if they have to be seen, blend them in with the scenery, properly attired, not with headphones & microphones. Believe me, they are nice looking but it detracts from the scenery and the message. Is this part of our delicadeza, that they have to be shown because they donated their time, may we ask a little bit more and get them off the scene, or at least, as I mentioned above, blend them in with the scenery.
Jamaica, a tiny island with only a small portion of the country used for tourism because of violence, has attracted 2 million visitors from Jan-Aug 2011 and will probably approach the Philippine total of 3.9 million pretty soon. Granted that it is helped by the proximity to the US, but let us look at their commercials. They last for less than a minute, some a few seconds, but compared to the 5 minute video of Pilipinas Tara Na, it does more to present the island as a tourist destination.
Honorio M. Cruz, MD
Las Vegas, NV
Asia and the Pacific
Out of the total of almost 204 million tourists to Asia and the Pacific in 2010, the top ten destinations were:[3]
| Rank | Country | International tourist arrivals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 55.67 million | |
| 2 | 24.58 million | |
| 3 | 20.09 million | |
| 4 | 15.84 million | |
| 5 | 11.93 million | |
| 6 | 9.16 million | |
| 7 | 8.80 million | |
| 8 | 8.61 million | |
| 9 | 7.00 million | |
| 10 | 5.89 million |
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