ANGELES CITY – Local tourists as well as stakeholders in the tourism industry here are questioning the authority of the “Tourists Information Center” at Fields Avenue in Barangay Balibago here to give proper information to tourists.
Gilda Padua, former president of the Alliance of Travel and Tour Association of Pampanga (ATTAP), said the so-called Tourists Information Center in Fields Ave. is misleading since it is managed by a private hotel.
“Does it really have the right information to provide tourists?” she asked.
Local tourist Rowena M. Zamora,41, who travelled all the way from Bicol with her children to visit a relative here before boarding a budget airline at Clark International Airport to Bangkok last week said she was surprised to find brochures for night clubs and bars instead of being given proper information at the center.
She said she failed to get the needed information from the center when she asked for directions to Plaridel Subdivision.
A restaurant owner said the Tourists Information Center in Fields Avenue has the impression that it is being maintained by the city government but actually it is owned by Swagman Hotel, a private business establishment.
“What is the city doing about it?” he asked. ”It seems the city government is insensitive to the plight of local tourists looking for information and direction other than bars and night clubs,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, professional photographer Robert Canlas of the Wedding Portrait Photographers of the Philippines (WPPP) said there should be a coordinated city tourism plan in order to improve our image which has gotten a beating from unscrupulous tricycle, jeepney and taxi drivers who prey on hapless tourists local or foreign.
Lai Valiente said a jeepney fare from McDonald’s Restaurant near Clark Chapel 2 to Fontana will cost you P150.
A taxi ride from the Clark main gate to Fontana costs around P500 or even P600, she said.
Canlas lamented that there is a lot of confusion now due to lack of proper coordination.
Canlas said the WPPP’s project entitled, “Wedding Destination Capital Pampanga,” is on its fifth year now.
“Last year we booked P13.8 million wedding packages but we don’t have Clark in our brochures because they charge so much,” he lamented.
“This is our fifth year and in all these years we have not yet produced a wedding portrait shot in Clark because in our second year we were stopped from shooting there,” he said.
“If there is proper coordination, maybe they will allow us to shoot because it is for the promotion of the place,” he reasoned.
“Much has been said about the Center for Kapampangan Studies (CKS) which is located inside the Holy Angel University (HAU) but when balikbayans come for a visit, they will be dismayed because most of the time they will not be allowed inside the university,” he said.
Tourists going inside the university to visit the CKS will have to pass through the tight security protocol being implemented by security guards manning the HAU gates.
Canlas said even tour organizers have a hard time getting inside the university.
