Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, the current big enchilada at the Department of Tourism, shows a unique steadfastness to the pursuit of the long-range goals of her office.
“It was when I reached out to these grassroots communities all over the country that I realized how I have the power to change hundreds of women’s lives by creating government policies that protect them and programs that capacitate them,” she said.
Philippine tourism, with an emphasis on preserving the country’s remarkable heritage as well as on staving off the decline of our biodiversity thru careless kitsch and crass commercialism, got a fresh shunt recently.
The one-day blitz at the Philippine International Convention in Pasay City, “Jobs and Women in the Philippine Tourism Industry” aims to make an extraordinary push for Filipino women to create an impact on our tourism industry. The forum had zero to do with the more debatable man/woman divide. It was primarily conceived as a way for women to show and lend their talents so they can rise above the old stereotyping within the pigeonhole.
Filipino women are a formidable force. Their let’s-try-anything spirit is the waterfall of abilities to move themselves and those around them forward, to slash their way to progress, and to expand that influence to more possibilities. The DoT acknowledges that influence. It knows that the Philippines has the potential to be a world tourism destination. The 7,641 islands have a lot of sand to cover and the DoT needs a lot of hands from everyone to not miss a grain of it. It’s going to be a no picnic task.
Of vital interest to the DoT vision for women is in increasing employment in management and non-traditional occupations (a woman commercial pilot, for example), increasing women-owned or -operated tourism-related enterprises, providing greater access to credit, training, product development, and wider markets, and in eliminating human trafficking and prostitution by discouraging the portrayal of women in a provocative and unrealistic come-ons in advertising campaigns and materials.
Difficult, yes. Impossible, of course not. Try asking that to a Pinay.
Romulo-Puyat is a cultural warrior and fortunately we are at a time when things for tourism are looking good. Two happy notes: In 2018, 7.1 million tourists had more fun in the Philippines, and, in this part of Asia, more than half of all tourism enterprises in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand are run by women.
The big picture here is for the DoT, with women as supporting instrumentalists for tourism boost, to promote the concept of a total form of bio-exhibitory, illustrating Philippine life in all its colors, distinctly local flavors, drama, wonder, and their interconnectedness. Our country is a storied land. Every island is rich in nifty features distinct from each, where legends abound speaking thoroughly of an era now past. Such legends are now cultural vestiges, historic evidence of our ancestors’ spirit that forms the country’s ethnic mosaic.
Travel, definitely, is a gift to memory. The experiences are pleasureful, but what we truly embrace are the memories that we carry and bring home. These memories keep us in going back to the same place, and ultimately, we venture to other destinations to relive them.
Yapak, a multi-dimensional feather in the DoT’s bandana, urges us to pack our bags and create some memories. Its circle of travel immersions—arts and culture, business opportunities, health and wellness, knowledge exchange, eco-tourism, farm tourism, people and history, medical tourism, religious pilgrimages, retirement villages, culinary tourism—should be enough ground bait to lure us into discovering more of the Philippines’ mystery of “true identity” and innate beauty without smothering its precious history. Dianne Zoleta is the brains and prodding stiletto of Yapak’s ideas and results, helping percolate DoT’s latest salvo with Filipino women as capable influencers.
Zoleta is in good company: DoT’s Bernadette Romulo-Puyat; Sandra Sanchez Montana, commissioner of Philippine Commission on Women; Chezka Gonzalez Garrido, AirAsia pilot; Maria Iturralde Hamlin, founder of Team Asia MICE; Gina Romero, chief executive officer of Connected Women; and Mylene Abiva of the Philippine Robotics Olympiad.
The human quest for beauty never ends. The Philippines, happily, does not run out of popular and yet to be discovered places that slow down time’s passing and offer these tourist destinations to those who seek an alternative lifestyle. People who are on a quest for the unspoiled, away from the mainstream, the smell of sewage floating in the air, and hellacious urban traffic jams will find a second home in the Philippines.
Photos by Diana B. Noche