Promote destinations one at a time

SKYJET CEO, Dr. Joel Mendoza, and his BAe-146 (British Aerospace) jet service to our sociocultural destinations.

A top official of the country’s youngest airline appealed to tourism officials and stakeholders to come together for the sake of the country and pool resources on a focused approach at marketing new destinations.

Dr. Joel Mendoza, chief executive officer of Skyjet Airlines, said that our country has more exotic destinations aside from Boracay and Palawan that the world has yet to discover.

“Caramoan was just another one of our taken for granted gems until Survivor raved about it. Many foreign travel wholesalers believed in its potential and we now have more foreigners coming over,” said Mendoza, lamenting the fact that foreign travelers are more aware about Caramoan’s allure than Filipinos in our own country.

The young airline executive believes that our country would be able to expand our market base faster if the world hears about and sees more of our other national assets than the usual Boracay.

“We have 7,107 islands! There is more to the Philippines than Boracay and Palawan,” Mendoza said, adding that we can decongest these destinations by promoting new ones.

The Skyjet CEO appealed to Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez to cure this imbalance by promoting new destinations by focusing on a particular destination one at a time, “Why don’t government, the private sector, and media agree on coming together for the greater good of our country and use shared resources to focus promotions on let’s say Caramoan next year, Siargao in 2015, etc?

Mendoza believes that this is one way to achieve the much-touted inclusive growth of the Aquino administration where more communities benefit from our country’s national assets. Recent employment data released by the government showed that economic growth did not trickle down to the poor and did not translate to more jobs for the unemployed.

It is said that tourism has a domino effect because it produces more jobs and livelihood opportunities for the communities that hosts tourist attractions. More visitors mean more people needed to service them, more food consumed, more places to sleep in, more souvenir items to buy, and so on and so forth.

Skyjet offers jet service to Batanes, Virac, Busuanga, and Surigao using a fleet of BAe 146 “whispering jets” which are capable of Short Take Off and Landings (STOL). Skyjet also flies to Caticlan and Catarman soon.

BORACAY'S MICRO-CLIMATE RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS UNIQUE BEACH

I was fortunate to be privy to a briefing on Micro-Climates where Boracay was featured as one of the case studies.

We were informed that Boracay is one of the few places in the world to have benefited from its unique micro-climate where the interplay of the monsoon winds, local conditions like the hill in Caticlan which acts as a climate change barrier that deflects both the habagat (northeast monsoon winds) and the amihan (southwest monsoon winds) in such a way that it gently loiters around the waters of Boracay and Caticlan replenishing its supply of pristine and gently polished  coral sand.

If you have ever wondered why Boracay is so blessed with such talcum powder like sand that does not burn your feet even at high noon ... Dr. Ric Javellosa of DENR says that it is because of Boracay-Caticlan's micro climate.

According to Dr. Javellosa, people in the environmental community consider the hill in Caticlan to be the  main driver and generator that allow the gentle monsoon breezes to create such fine and polished sand that Boracay is known for.


"Without that hill Boracay's beaches will disappear," said Javellosa.

Uh-oh ... doesn't the extension of the runway and upgrade of Caticlan airport into an international airport call for the leveling of the hill at the edge of the runway?

Isn't that the same hill that is being touted as responsible for deflecting the amihan and habagat that replenishes Boracay and Caticlan's beaches with fine white coral sand?

Wait ... something must be done before they level that particular hill. The least we can do is to validate the micro-climate conditions and the claim that the hill plays an important role as a climate change barrier.

We don't want to sound anti-development, but, we must at least ensure that an environmental impact study was done for the airport upgrade project.

Help! Can someone or any of the powers-that-be listening at the moment do something to make sure that we are not doing away with "something that appears so insignificant but in reality is".

If that hill in Caticlan is such a valuable resource as learned environmentalists claim --- we should save it. Otherwise, be ready to say goodbye to "one of the world's best beaches" and say hello to the sand dunes of Caticlan.