Posts by tag
travel
Management Association of the Philippines asks Anti-Red Tape Authority: Review new travel rules
THE Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) has urged the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) to review the 2023 Interagency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) revised guidelines on departure requirements for Filipino passengers traveling abroad to ensure that Filipino travelers are not “unnecessarily burdened” with additional documentary requirements.
China: Connecting its glorious past to the future
BEIJING—Most Filipinos probably have no idea about the ancient city of Xi’an unless they have read about or watched documentaries on the Terracotta Warriors, the renowned underground sculptures of soldiers of a Chinese emperor.
China invites PCO, PHL media to 7 cities; says it ‘simply needs to be understood’
BEIJING, China—When President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited Beijing in January, it was a cold, bitter winter’s day, and the Covid-19 Omicron variant was on a rampage.
Palawan emerges as most preferred Pinoy tourist destination in survey
A recent survey revealed Palawan is the top travel destination preferred by Filipinos, even as a lawmaker cautioned that airport experience and poor infrastructure might negate the Philippines’ tourism brand.
DOT bares new tourism slogan…but do you love it?
FROM declaring to the entire world “It’s More Fun in the Philippines,” the Department of Tourism (DOT) is now seemingly imploring tourists to “Love the Philippines.”
Consul-General Mark McGovern opens consular section to local media, shares ‘tips’ on US visa application
THE usual humid air from the Manila Bay greeted us last June 1—the day the United States Embassy in Manila gave select Philippine media members a tour inside their consular office within their compound along Roxas Boulevard in the City of Manila.
25 Boracay resorts allowed to reopen on October 26
AN initial batch of 25 resorts has been approved by the inter-agency Task Force Boracay to resume their operations when the island reopens on October 26.
Why kill the goose that lays golden eggs?
‘With 7,000 tropical islands on my doorstep, all ripe for exploration, I find it easy to like the Philippines. Love, on the other hand, is borne of subtler things. Love is borne of long rooftop jeepney rides through the mountains of North Luzon; of a frosty San Miguel at sundown on a sublime slab of Visayan sand; of a fresh-fish lunch, followed by a siesta on an interminable banca journey through Palawan’s islands; of friends with names like Bing and Bong; of phrases like “comfort room”; of—dare I say it—karaoke. Now that is love.”
Floored by Florence
ROME may be the birthplace of the Roman Empire but Florence holds the distinction of being the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. For around 250 years, before 1300 until the early 1500s, it was politically, economically and culturally the most important city in Europe. The Florentines dominated the visual arts like nobody before or since, from Arnolfo and Cimabue to Giotto, Nanni di Banco and Uccello; through Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Donatello and Massaccio, and the various della Robbias; through Fra Angelico and Botticelli and Piero della Francesca; and on to Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
Nowhere to go but ‘app’: Technology as a driver of tourism
PLANES, trains and automobiles. These may be some of the most common ways to get around. It’s also the title of a classic comedy-adventure movie riddled with slapstick problems and travel mishaps that no longer plague travelers of the new age.
DOT renews partnership with students travel group
THE Department of Tourism (DOT) has renewed its partnership with the Students Travel Association (STA Travel), a worldwide tour operator, in a bid to further boost visitor arrivals from the United Kingdom.
Officials to promote Mindanao in London travel, tourism mart
By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo / Special to the BusinessMirror
London never fails to surprise Pinoy travelers
“IF you ever have a chance to go abroad, what country would you choose first, Britain or America?” a photographer for the British Oversea Airways Corp. (BOAC) asked me while visiting the Philippines in the 1970s to check if a town called Boac, Marinduque, really existed.
Why Mongolia should be on your rustic bucket list
By Stuart Leavenworth / McClatchy Washington Bureau
East meets West and old meets new in TbIlisi
I happened to be in Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia, upon the invitation of Thelmo O. Cunanan Jr., honorary consul of Georgia in the Philippines, to cover the Colors of Hope exhibit of Pancho Piano, the first Filipino artist to officially present his work in Georgia and the entire Caucasus region. With our group were Riva M. Galveztan (health food advocate) and Prof. Melissa Dizon-Dulalia.
Virgin beach of Basilan
GOING on trips can be quite stressful, what with all the booking, preparing, packing and the actual traveling involved. The end result, however, can be nothing short of pure bliss—good food, great company, majestic sceneries, once-in-a-lifetime experience with nature, and the exposure to other cultures. The escapade is marked best with solitude, or at least an approximation of it, when there are not many crowds swarming the place, drowning out the silence in nonstop mindless chatter, and blurring out its beauty.
Bound for the US? Avoid these pricey tourist traps
WHEN was the last time you walked out of an attraction and thought, “Wow, that was a huge waste of time and money?”
The lure of Sumilon
I again got an invitation from Pete Dacuycuy to join a three-day media familiarization tour of another Bluewater resort (the first one we visited was the Panglao Bluewater Resort in Bohol), this time to the 27-room Bluewater Sumilon Island Resort (www.bluewatersumilon.com.ph) in Cebu. Joining me were two bloggers and five writers from the print media. We all arrived at Sibulan Airport by 3:30 pm via a PAL Express flight and, upon exiting the terminal, we were whisked via two air-conditioned vans to Sibulan Port. Here, a big 50-pax outrigger boat was waiting to bring us to the island, foregoing the tedious land-sea transfer and, instead, directly getting to the island via a one-hour boat trip. We arrived at the island by 4:50 pm. Dinner was prepared, al fresco, along the island’s signature shifting sandbar.
More destinations for travelers to set their sights on in 2015
Editor’s note: As 2014 further fades into memory, here are the other destinations the author has listed down as among the top 15 possibilities for your vacation time this year.