Cebu: Despite travel advisories, tourism must move on

With wars, chaos, threats, etc. prevailing all over the world, the paranoia that no one is safe now obtains.  In fact, even countries with so much sophistications in terms of threat-readiness and are on their toes 24/7 aren’t spared of these threats too.

One of these countries known for its readiness is the United Kingdom (UK).  Yet, almost every year, it is on the receiving end of terrorist attacks.

So that, may be, just because we apprehended an aging Abu Sayyaf in Carcar City, Cebu, the United Kingdom issued a travel advisory to its citizens cautioning them from traveling to the southern part of Cebu Province. The municipalities of Dalaguete and Badian (south and southwest of Cebu) were singled out, in particular. These are localities known for agri-tourism and the Kawasan Falls, respectively.

As to why and what’s the UK’s basis in singling out the municipalities of Dalaguete and Badian as unsafe, we do not know and as non-internal-security experts, we don’t dare speculate.  However, if there is something to learn, we have to take seriously and by heart Bohol’s unpalatable tourism-related experiences and how successfully they recovered.

To recall, 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.

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 this merciless group of bandits.

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 bandits’ 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, apart from the Bohol tragedy, 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 kilometers 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.

Simply put, Cebu’s tourism industry must move on.