ON the few occasions I was able to go abroad, what I eagerly sought out were the people, more than the scenery, more than the iconic landmarks. I observed how the natives talked and how they behaved. I tasted their local cuisine. I went to their museums, theaters, temples, local handicraft stores, and explored their backstreets. I tried to immerse myself into the kind of life as the locals experienced it.
And all that can be summed up in one word: Culture.
This is perhaps why I am not very adept at buying pasalubong. Not because I am a tightwad or miserly. It’s because I devote less of my time to shopping.
To me culture is what really makes a country or a destination different and distinct. Not so much the physical terrain or the scenery because mountains, beaches, forests, rivers, buildings and all seem to look the same from one country to the other.
I choose to spend more time trying to gain a deeper understanding of the culture or heritage of a destination. Culture is what traveling should be all about.
The World Tourism Organization tells us that cultural tourism accounts for 37 percent of global tourism, and furthermore affirms that it will continue to grow 15 percent each year.
In other words, nowadays, a country’s culture is a major driver not only of its tourism sector but also its economy as a whole.
As defined by tourism experts, Cultural Tourism is traveling to experience the places, artifacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present.
To me stories of people and places should be our way of cultural tourism. Why? Let’s face it, we don’t have awe-inspiring heritage assets that will command the interest of tourists like the ruins of Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, Borobudur in Indonesia or Angkor Wat in Cambodia or the Parthenon in Greece or the Aztec and Maya temples in South America, or the Roman Coliseum and Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome and so on.
What we have are small simple stories of our people and our places that if packaged properly by local communities can draw tourists and travelers who are culture seekers. Each town or city has its own unique cultural assets, which can be developed such as historical sites, modern urban districts, “ethnic pockets” of town, fairs/festivals, theme parks, and natural ecosystems and so on.
But above all these, my advice is simple: harness the power of storytelling.
All of us are suckers for a good story. Why are we bingeing on tele-seryes? Why are we willing to part with our hard-earned money for movies?
It’s because we are hooked on stories.
Come to think of it. Stories are the reason why we are drawn to iconic landmarks. The Pyramids. The Vatican. The Aztec ruins. The Parthenon. We have been prepped by stories we read about them. Our imagination is filled with the drama and the history behind them.
So my advice to local government leaders is to find the inherent drama in your place that can be built up into theatrical proportions and that can be told well.
It could be a piece of history like the origin of the town or city or the name or the native heroes, or a unique indigenous cuisine. Or whatever.
One example. Taguig and Pasig share a common last syllable, which is “ig.” It has a common etymology with tubig. The names refer to the fact that the first people who built the communities came by boats using the river. Thus, you can create a story around the concept of “People of the River.” This could be the basis of your cultural tourism product. You can have products made of water lilies fished out of the Pasig River. You can have boat rides. You can blow up the river goddess or diwata, and exploit the song “Mutya ng Pasig.”
Or take another example, a municipality like Santa Maria, Bulacan. This is the birthplace of Jose Corazon de Jesus, the king of the spoken word, balagtasan. The townsfolk can create an annual festival of the spoken word during his birth month and make a splash to attract tourists, domestic or foreign.
Or Tagaytay. Instead of just offering scenic vistas of the volcano, why not produce an immersive audiovisual presentation that tells the story of Taal and the surrounding areas, how the volcano has buried whole towns and churches hundreds of years before and then give them a feel of the eruption through mechanical movement of the seats. After viewing this sensurround video, tourists will not only be entertained, they will have a deeper and richer appreciation of Taal area as they look around.
Just use the imagination and you can conjure up a spectacle through sound, images and motion. You can utilize holographic technology to make characters come alive, if your budget is up to it. Let it become viral on social media and then wait for the busloads of tourists to come.
This is the power of theatrical storytelling.
Showcasing our culture through powerful and creative storytelling helps preserve our cultural and historical heritage. By hooking our own people into the story of our culture, we are able to establish and reinforce our cultural identity and help build our self-image…our branding as a nation in the minds of other people.
One can take a traveler’s mind out of a destination but one can never take that destination out of his mind. For once it is well told and experienced, a culture will stay in the mind forever.