Tourism officials step up campaign
Thursday, July 28, 2011
JUST how much is the government willing to spend for the Philippines’ lone entry to the New Seven Wonders of Nature search?
A lot, if a P7-million raffle grand prize and a host of other prizes is at stake.
Tourism officials of the Southern Tagalog region and the local government of Puerto Princesa are on a nationwide tour to drum up support for its bid to make the Puerto Princesa Underground River one of the world’s seven “Wonders of Nature.”
They hope the public will take the time and resources to vote for it before voting ends on midnight of Nov. 10. The results will be announced a day later with similar pomp and ceremony held during the announcement of winners in Lisbon in July 2007.
1 of 17
The Puerto Princesa Underground River was just one of 440 international sites nominated in 2007 and one of 17 Philippine sites. A panel of experts recommended 28 finalists, based on unique beauty of the site, diversity and distribution across the globe, ecological significance and historical legacy.
Officials know they face stiff competition from more popular international sites such as the Grand Canyon in the United States, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Amazon in South America, the Dead Sea, the islands of Maldives and Galapagos in Ecuador among others.
Benefits
The search follows the New Seven Wonders of the World, which had 100 million voters pick the Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, Machu Pichu in Peru, the Chichen Itza Pyramid in Mexico, the Taj Mahal in India and the Colosseum in Rome as the winners.
Asked what benefits come from making it to the New Seven Wonders list and Puerto Princesa City Tourism Officer Rebecca Labit will point to international sources showing big numbers in tourist arrivals and tourism revenue in areas that either made it or were shorlisted.
An independent report by Grant Thornton showed that South Africa could benefit by $200 million a year or $1 billion for the first five years if Table Mountain gets picked as one of the official seven natural wonders.
The study showed that Cape Town coud see tourism increase by 20 percent annually, with 70 percent of the visitors from overseas, and an estimated 11,000 employment opportunities.
The Jeju Development Institute found that South Korea’s Jeju Island could earn between $895 million to $1.837 billion if it is chosen as one of the seven natural wonders.
Labit said the attention of the campaign is an effective, if unconventional, advertising tool. Although she is bent on winning, she said even those that don’t could benefit from an average of a 20 to 40 percent rise in tourism.
Big prizes
She cited the 61 percent rise in Jordan’s tourism numbers, 72 percent for Peru’s Machu Picchu and 75 percent for Mexico’s Chichen Itza Pyramid.
To reward Filipinos for their support, Labit announced they wll be raffling big prizes to those who will be texting in their votes beginning Aug. 15.
They will give one winner P7 million, seven winners P1 million each, 70 winners all-expense paid trips to Puerto Princesa for three days and two nights and another 70 winners all-expense paid trips for four days to other destinations in the country.
They also raffled off all-expense paid trips to students, faculty, tour operators and media who were present during their Cebu launch.
Knowing the Filipinos’ propensity for text messaging, Labit has no doubt their efforts will succeed.
“This is a victory for the Filipinos,” Labit said. “When it comes to texting, nobody can beat us.”
Supporters are being urged to text PPUR to 2861 for all networks. Votes can also be cast atwww.new7wonders.com.
Department of Tourism (DOT) Southern Tagalog regional director Louella Jurilla agress with Labit on the country’s ability to support the campaign via SMS, saying her children have also been instructed to text their votes as well.
For skeptics of the search and those who doubt the integrity of the site’s entry due to the texting power of Filipinos, tourism officials can only present an official report of a group of Italian geographical explorers, who maintain that the caves of the underground river are “truly exceptional”.
The La Venta Esplorazioni Geografiche claims that the underground river represents one of the most important estuaries in the entire world. They also report that it hosts a complex and “valuable” karst ecosystem and that the cave has a very high amount of energy that could help offset the impact of tourism.
The exploration team also said the area contains “scientifically and aesthetically unique speleothems” and that it hosts “peculiar macro and micro karst morphologies.”
Discovery
If all the scientific terms fail to impress, the explorers also made a big discovery, which they say is a one-in-a-billion chance of existence and discovery. While exploring the caves, they came across a well-preserved fossil of a sea mammal, confirmed by their paleontologists as a sirenia (sea cow) from the Oligo-Miocene Age.
The explorers describe the fossil as “perfectly conserved” and that it outcrops from a wall of the gallery not far from where tourists are allowed.
“What is exceptional about this finding is the fact that the fossil (an extremely rare thing itself) is in perfect condition and practically totally exposed due to erosion and differential karst dissolution, that have not removed the limestone and left the bones untouched due to their partial phosphate content,” the team said.
To simplify, Labit said the fossil is 20 million years old.
President Benigno Aquino III has clearly been convinced.
He issued a proclamation last June declaring a national and international promotion campaign for the Puerto Princesa Underground River and created a campaign task force consisting of the tourism, interior and local government, foreign affairs, transportation and communications, environment and natural resources, labor and management, budget and management and education departments, and othere commissions of the government which will undertake an “agressive” voting campaign at the national level focusing on students and local government units.
Steady rise
With such heavy promotion, tourist arrivals in Puerto Princesa have already been rising steadily, from 268,000 in 2009 to 425,000 in 2010. They project it will double by the end of 2011.
With so many people visiting the site, many worry that tourist activities would disrupt the natural wonder, bringing in pollution and other problems.
But Labit dismisses this, saying this was the least of their problems.
“We have local legislations in place since 2005,” she assured.
She said that they have been preparing for an influx of tourists and that these legislations ensure the sustainability of the river as a tourist attraction, including many prohibitions that could cause harm to the site.
She explained that they have strict rules such as making boatmen follow a queueing system, use uniform colored paddle boats and prohibit the use of very bright lights so as not to disturb the animals living in the cave.
They even welcome the daily direct flights offered to Puerto Princesa from Cebu.
The findings of the La Venta team also gives them relief, as they found that the high energy levels of the cave can support more than double or triple 1,200 tourists a day.
“Having too many tourists? That’s actually a good problem,” Labit said.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on July 28, 2011.
Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/business/2011/07/28/tourism-officials-step-campaign-169399
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