Thursday, February 28, 2008

Amazing Race Asia and Philippines Tourism


I enjoyed watching the second season of Amazing Race Asia. It was because of this show that I now know how beautiful Prague looks and it is now definitely on my future must-travel list. This weekly show turned into my Discovery Travel channel which I unfortunately do not get on SkyCable.

What I am disappointed about is why of all the things or places to show in the Philippines they had to show the contestants eating Balut, riding jeepneys, putting together bicycles and sticking their legs in muddy rice paddies. This was our chance at promoting tourism in our country at a show that definitely has a regional if not a global following.

If they wanted to just stay within Metro Manila or Luzon, they could have used Corregidor instead. It could be something like “Corregidor was the last bastion of freedom …” where at least there was world history significance. If they wanted to show a “sport” (i.e. putting bicycles together), they could have used billiards being that we hosted the World Pool Championship the past two years in addition to it being one of the unwritten national sports. Our Filipino players are among the best in the world.

As I said in an earlier post, Balut eating should only be shown on Fear Factor and jeepneys are not vehicles you would want to be promoting to a world audience. In addition to being old and decrepit menaces on our roads, they run on diesel and discharge a tremendous amount of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere.

If the producers wanted to show water sports, we could have shown Subic. If they wanted cable cars and races up a hill, they could have shown Tagaytay Highlands.

My point is why do we keep screwing up these opportunities for promoting tourism to the Philippines. I sincerely don’t believe that the Philippines is just all about rice paddies and eating Balut. I know that but the viewers in other countries don’t know that.

Just like the recent World Pool Championship that was held last November 2007. The PAGCOR banner was in the middle of everything facing the main camera. The organizers forgot that this was an international event viewed on ESPN for a straight two weeks. If I was a TV viewer not from the Philippines, I’d be saying “What the F is PAGCOR?”

The Department of Tourism missed a lot of brownie points with these two shows. I hope they would keep a better eye out for the next one… assuming there would be a next one.

Thanks for visiting! If you like this post, please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS.

No comments: