On tourism

When I was with the City Information Office, a Canadian backpacker was accompanied to my office one afternoon by a City Mayor’s Office receptionist. The Caucasian woman, who must have been in her mid-60s, was visibly mad.

And even before I could ask her what her problem was, she said, “I hope this time, I will get the right direction. Nobody in this city seems to give the right directions.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Well, when I got off this bus, I took a tricycle and told the driver to take me to a pension house. You know where he took me?” she said.

“Where?” I asked.

“To some insurance company!” she said. (The poor lady was apparently taken to the Pension Plan Inc. office, I would learn later.)

I have actually shared this story over and over again to friends to drive home the point that Dagupan City has to do a lot of catching up in terms of putting in place tourism support structures if it wants to establish itself as a major tourist destination in Pangasinan.

Now that summer has begun, for instance, and tourists will be trooping once again to our beaches in Bonuan, there should be an office where these tourists can go to for assistance. If they want information about hotels and lodging houses, restaurants, Internet cafes and even about the details of the Bangus Festival in the city, someone authoritative should provide them the answers.

While it is true that the Tondaligan management office, now headed by a colleague, Dino Zabala, is in the area, it may not be the right office because it was created for a completely different task. It may not also be ready to provide all the “right directions” that tourists would want.

Except for the City Tourism Office, which, by the way, is based at the city hall, tourists visiting the city have no one else to turn to if they want access to tourism facilities and attractions that the city has to offer. Especially for first timers, finding the way to the Bonuan beaches, for instance, may be very frustrating and traumatic.

In short, it is now high time for the city to establish tourist information and assistance centers in strategic places of the city where visitors can go to get some assistance. Tourists usually feel safer and reassured if they get help from a government office or from a tourism organization (like the City Tourism Council) than, say, from a tricycle or jeepney driver. Tourists would feel, too, that they are being warmly welcomed to the city if they find it easy to get help.

Regular seminars for frontline sectors, such as transport groups and food servers, on their role in the tourism industry should also be conducted. This sector should be well-informed about the city’s attractions and its tourist facilities. Teaching them to be polite and hospitable will also help.

Then, of course, a website would be helpful. Today, people intending to visit a certain place would first surf the Internet for any information about it. It is usually in the websites where prospective tourists get telephone numbers of hotels and restaurants, suggested itinerary, and even roadmaps.

Unfortunately, Dagupan City’s website is still under construction.

ENDNOTES: In just a span of seven days, while he was acting city mayor, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez turned over some P300,000 worth of medicines, which he received as donations, to the City Health Office. The first shipment worth P200,000 of assorted medicines, came from Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman. The rest was from Sen. Mar Roxas.

QUICK QUOTE: We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -- Aesop (~550 BC)