BY HELEN J. CATALBAS
WE CAN’T imagine any aspect of human or social activity that is not made more exciting with art. Name the activity and see how much or may be less art is in it and find out its excitement level.
Tourism is one such human or social activity that is made more exciting with art. Exhibit, film, culinary, museum, dance, painting, sculpture, architecture, public markets, old and modern transportation, festivals, rituals, customs and traditions, fashion or lack of it, shopping centers, tourism natural and manmade attractions, facilities, amenities and events, you name it art is in it. Indeed, the list of items in pursuit of and honoring art is endless.
Art is universal, being a creation of the human mind and made more lofty by the human heart embellished with human experiences with animate and inanimate things and creation.
All over the world people travel near or far and wide as tourists to live and appreciate life better, to be transported to the past, to enjoy the exciting present and look forward to a glorious and awesome (or awful?) future.
Travel time in a place of destination is almost always not unlimited. What better way than spend the time and to experience the moments better between the airport/seaport/land transport terminal arrival area and the departure area on the other side is to spend a substantial chunk of tourist time than visit general interest museum or a highly specialized one, exhibit, public market, library of local culture and art.
In our past life as a tourism worker in the government service for 45 years, we travelled to the 16 regions of the Philippines countless of times and to at least 18 countries several times. These travels were all about work. We, together with a delegation, promoted the Philippines, particularly the Western Visayas region, as a tourism destination with the product portfolio that included nature-based, cultural, adventure, sun and beach, cruise, education, shopping and entertainment, and culinary. Our pitch then for Western Visayas region included cruise, nature, culture, and adventure tourism products. Those travels amounted to making Region 6 (Western Visayas) a tourism-driven region before the pandemic.
Those travels confirmed our belief that tourism destinations and tourism markets have one thing in common – art – expressed in so many exciting ways as each country becomes the destination and market of each at one time or the other or many times over, as the case may be.
Governments and private sector should invest in, promote and market art. We do our share from the private sector side now. (HJC/PN)
