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Post by EXO on Jun 1, 2010 23:05:03 GMT 8
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Post by tomasctt on Aug 8, 2010 11:23:19 GMT 8
I'm afraid a classmate of mine is partly responsible for turning Corregidor into "Adventure Island." Unfortunately, he being a pacifist who is more interested in culture and such, he wasn't interested in history (to think he is a History graduate in UP Diliman....). To hear him tell me that they found a "culture there that our indigenous" blah blah.... *sigh* FWIW, I deplore Corregidor's current situation as a "tourist trap." I don't like the way it is marketed today, as an 'adventure destination' where one can hold 'adventure activities' like zip lines, and spelunking, or even have your weddings taken place there and such. It's a war grave, and it deserves to be respected. I remember back in 2000 in my first trip to Corregidor when I learned that the Department of Tourism "owned" the place - and started "beautifying" it. Yet they couldn't properly maintain the Pacific War Memorial.... Really find it sad that people who go to Corregidor do not exactly go there for its history. They go there for the beach. For the zip lines. For the adventure. Sure they'll nod their head and say "Wow" when the tour guide brings them to the batteries, but that's all there is to them - just another gun, just another mortar. They do not fully appreciate it. I find it sad really that a lot who go there now see it only as a vacation spot. Hell, when I was camped at South Dock in 2005, I had a hard time sleeping because of the rowdy tourists who insist on singing offkey at Pirates Cove, or drink copious amounts of alcohol, running around like it's one big playground. I immediately missed camping at Middleside in front of the YMCA ruins when I saw how, ah, "polluted" South Dock was. I guess if I'm going back, Middleside will be my basecamp from which to explore Topside. Never again South Dock - unless there are no other tourists (I guess I was unlucky, because a regatta was held during the time I was there). Heh, the people at South Dock surely didn't experience having a kite land within two meters from where they stood, eh? I sorely wish people really appreciate Corregidor as what it is: a battlefield, not a tourist spot. Alas, money talks, and tourists bring in money, and you get a tourist trap.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Aug 8, 2010 15:11:20 GMT 8
Corregidor can be a riddle to us too.
If I might generalize, the people who are regulars at this forum seem motivated mainly by an addiction to the deeper echoes of History, and thus experience a feeling of unease when faced with the ways and means of the tourist trap trade, which trade furnishes essentially a shallow"point and shoot"understanding.
Perhaps I might liken us to being caught in the EMBRACE OF HISTORY.
Some have commented that it hardly matters what the tour guides tell the folk, as 99% is forgotten by the time the boat returns to the wharf in Manila. They may be right.
Some of us look at Corregidor and want it to attract more tourists, and yet, at the same time, can be disappointed at how history can be diminished when it is "dumbed down" to the tourists who do get there. The island needs money to run, and the cost of maintaining it isn't easily obtained, except from the tourists. So you have to feed the multitude something. It's certainly not the first attraction to provide simple history, "history lite", and it won't be the last.
The reality though, is that there's not enough heavy duty history tourists to fund the place any more (if there ever was.) The veterans, though not all dead, don't travel well any more. It is a big event to get even one, now. Few of their families make the trip any more. So they sell "history lite", mixed with a bit of pizazz adventure, zip rides, etc.
Shame that Corregidor hasn't gotten into full strength Eco-Tourism, which is succeeding elsewhere throughout the Philippines, and is starting to get the country recognized as a desirable natural destination. Eco Tourism and History Tourism are compatible, and there's always a chance that a development of a higher regard for the ecology can clean up some of the excesses of years past. However, Eco Tourism isn't cheap to implement.
What a great shot of the eagle!!! Is that a Philippine Sea Eagle?
Not many people know that some of the largest tourist numbers travelling worldwide are "bird-watchers." Yet Corregidor allows cats! What message does that send?
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Post by tomasctt on Aug 14, 2010 16:17:20 GMT 8
What a great shot of the eagle!!! Is that a Philippine Sea Eagle? Thanks! I don't exactly know what it is, but I reckon it's a kite.
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Post by tomasctt on Oct 20, 2010 21:36:12 GMT 8
Re: Eco-tourism, I have an objection on applying that "role-model" to our beloved Fort Mills.
Eco-tourism is that - Ecological Tourism. The focus being on the environment.
Fort Mills is a battlefield. And the best way to promote Fort Mills is by promoting it as a battleground. In some countries like the USA and some in Europe, battlefields are billed as such: battlefields, not some eco-tourism destination, or an adventure escapade. History is the Number One draw in it. That is how Fort Mills should be "marketed." Not as an adventure island. Not as an eco-tourism destination. To do so otherwise misses the point, and the point is that Fort Mills is a battlefield.
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Post by EXO on Oct 21, 2010 0:01:46 GMT 8
Tomasctt,
There's much in what you say.
We buffs have seen how the "military" market has literally died, as the veterans themselves have. Few of their children seem interested. Just us buffs are the only people who set out to go to the Philippines with the purpose of going to Corregidor.
And lets face it, other than school students who are more interested in the opposite sex and not being at school as being anywhere of historic significance, who comes? Koreans and Chinese who are looking for a day trip? There doesn't even seem to be the number of Japanese as there used to be.
Besides, most of the marketing falls to the responsibility of the tour operator, and their marketing is totally great.
Not.
If ever I have lamented how inadequate has been this, that or whatever, it's not for any CFI carelessness or slackness, which they are not, but because CFI must operate within its own budget - ie possibly a zero contribution by government. It's a huge job, and a costly one, and I suspect their money is very very limited. I suspect [HAVE NO EVIDENCE WHATEVER!] that CFI have to run the place on a SBA (sweet bugger all) basis or next to SBA income from government, and thus must run everything based on a per-capita tourist levy.
I keep on coming back and harping on it that it is NOT a National Park, and thus can't by definition be funded as a National Park (as Americans understand them) might be. So, when tourist numbers went down, they got caught in a real bind. Fewer tourists, lower income, but every morning the grass still grows and the leaves still fall! It's unreasonable to expect the Philippines to run a non-National Park as well as any US National Park, and probably even more unfair of us to equate the way they fund National Parks here with the way they are funded somewhere else.
I have no solution though. Worldwide, tourist figures are down. That means less money to CFI. That means less money to Sun Cruises.
I have been harping about eco tourism as a bit of a buzz-word, I admit. Eco-tourism does at least imply some commitment to an increased respect for the island ecology. It's a direction I'd like to see them take, but I know that it means hardships, like thinking about telling people like Sun Cruises stuff they mightn't like to hear ...such as "if you bring food on to the island each morning, you should take the food scraps back to Manila each afternoon," and other stuff like that. Or to other vehicle owners "if you bring a vehicle to the island, pay a deposit so we can get rid of it if it breaks down and you junk it - coz you can't leave it here."
Even some lip service would be better than none. I'd be happy, nay, overjoyed with a "no cats" policy, a "paint all vehicles olive drab" and "no two-stroke engines" policy.
In my dreams!
I cringe - as you do - at "adventure escapade" and "corporate bonding seminars" etc., but somehow - because the government doesn't fund them like the National Park that people generally think they are (but aren't), and because they only get a limited income from Sun Cruises (based on headcount), CFI's really caught between a rock and a hard place (no pun intended.)
It's like two dogs chasing each other's tails. The responsibility for marketing belongs to the tour operator, but the cost of keeping the island nice is CFI's. The tour operator owns the boat, has the cash cow, and the CFI only gets a per-capita entrance fee. The size of the pie keeps on getting smaller.
Maybe we can start another thread on how to bake larger pies.
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Post by tomasctt on Oct 21, 2010 7:18:32 GMT 8
EXO, I've been meaning to create an article of sorts for a site www.pinoymountaineer.com. The site's webmaster/blogger there, Dr. Gideon Lasco, has an article on Malinta Hill. I want to expand on that by giving him a draft of the article I have in mind, i.e. a trek to the eight batteries fots2, I and my 2 coworkers visited two weekends ago. I was glad my 2 coworkers (who had no trekking experience at all, and were not history buffs like us) were very happy with our trek. For them, visiting the batteries off-the-beaten path, seeing the relatively untouched ruins of Smith, Cheney, and Wheeler, and getting to know more about the history from fots2 and other ruins they saw was so much better than the guided tranvia tour. In fact, when we did the day tour on our second day (because my 2 coworkers wanted to see the Malinta Tunnel L&S show), they remarked that the day tour was bland and that they preferred the long trek we did on Day 1. When my coworkers proceeded to tell our other officemates about our Fort Mills expedition (officemates who have visited Fort Mills a few months ago taking the guided tour package), they were a bit jealous because they only saw 3 batteries whereas we did 8. That said, due to the reaction of my coworkers, that got me thinking of submitting an article with itinerary of our 8-battery, 3-tunnel expedition to Pinoymountaineer.com. I reckon Dr Lasco will be glad in adding it to his website. My concern right now is if it is proper to do so, by which I mean if you guys think it's a good idea (after all, it caters to the "adventure escapade" idea). For me, the 8-battery, 3-tunnel trek has a more historical feel to it though. For those not well-versed in history, it is really an adventure, albeit more with a historical bent - provided they get a good guide who'll give them correct info. Willing to give the green light on this little pet project of mine?
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Post by tomasctt on Oct 21, 2010 7:24:13 GMT 8
Oh, and FWIW, I also think that CFI, with its limited resources, is doing a good job. They could do it better, of course, like by giving the tour guides a better grasp of history (so they can give correct facts, and not wrong information). They could also open the place to people like me: those who won't use the hotel and won't be taking the guided tour, preferring to explore the island on their own, and staying in a tent. That'll open the island to those who cannot afford the somewhat steep fees involved. Of course, the downside is that there'll be more people, and it'll be crowded, which I understand is the reason for why the tours run on a very tight schedule.
Still, CFI is doing a good job AFAICT (judging from my previous trips in 2000 and 2005), but it can be done better with a more historical bent and less of another "summer getaway" destination.
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Post by EXO on Oct 21, 2010 15:10:44 GMT 8
Tomasctt,
One of the great joys I get is to help and encourage (infect?) people with the desire to pursue some aspect of their own interest in history - whether it is Corregidor, the 503d, Ft. Drum, the War in Bataan, the Battle of Manila etc.
I thus encourage you to pursue your project.
I am not just saying this but your views of the differences between the "two-hour tourists" and the full day 'Fots2' tour, is significant and quite valid, and brings up a sore point (what, not another?)
I wonder if Sun Tours has never taken things in that direction because they never had any ideas which weren't bland vanilla. It's as if they don't understand the nature of the attraction at all.
For example, installing a zip line across a battlefield.
Gee, I wonder what would happen if someone wanted to put a zip line across Harpers' Ferry or down Little Round Top? From Point du Hoc to the beach? Thermopylae Adventure Playground? Ride the Gallipoli Zipper!!
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Post by tomasctt on Oct 22, 2010 8:22:11 GMT 8
Thermopylae Adventure Playground Mechanics: 1) Stand at the Hot Gates to 2) Stop the rushing tourists trying to enter it. Cue in mayhem. ;D Thanks for the green light EXO, will work on it now.
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