THE SARI-SARI store syndrome, it is called.
In a newly opened subdivision, a homeowner tried to cash in on the still-on-going house construction by putting up a sari-sari store.
Being the only one in the area, the venture was an instant success.
No need to guess what happened next: Sari-sari stores started sprouting at just about every street corner in that subdivision.
It was the same story with the hot pandesal craze when just about every other house in the barrio had its own bakery.
And we all know how these stories ended – closed shops, with the market unable to absorb the glut.
As it was with the sari-sari store and hot pandesal, so it was too with ballroom dancing and badminton.
So hot today with everybody getting in on the act, only to be cold in the morrow with everybody tiring of the act. Fads and fancies, easy in the passing.
When wakeboarding placed CamSur in the tourist map, Philippine Tourism Authority chief Mark Lapid signed a memorandum of agreement with then-Clark Development Corp. President-CEO Benny Ricafort to replicate Gov. L-Rey Villafuerte’s waterworld up the hills of Sacobia.
To the utter consternation of environmentalists and the tribes, not so much though for Lapid being a second-rate, trying hard copycat as for the environmental degradation the project would cause.
Ziplines are nothing new to the adrenaline-seeking adventurers, having been out there for quite a time now in Davao, Cagayan de Oro, even nearby Subic.
Ziplines are the current rage though in Pampanga. Thanks to the eco-tourism initiatives of Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda in the highlands of Nabuclod, Floridablanca.
Last week, we read in the papers the Honorable Salvador Dimson Jr., 2nd District board member, announcing that Porac town will have its own zipline facility in the Aeta village of Villa Maria.
“A zipline facility is a good come-on for tourists and eco-tourism enthusiasts who would like to explore the mountain attractions of Porac town.”
So was Dimson quoted as saying, the news report adding Dimson “stressing that the success of the newly constructed zipline facility in Floridablanca will serve as the benchmark of the other tourism amenities in Porac.”
Dimson found an echo in Porac Mayor Condralito dela Cruz who was reported to have “appealed to Governor Lilia Pineda to push for the development of a zipline facility that will complement the existing attractions in the town.”
“We have the Miyamit Falls, a view deck and hectares and hectares of rolling mountains with well-kept mountain trails. We have all the conditions for a perfect eco-tourism attraction.” So was Dela Cruz quoted in the news reports.
Precisely. Porac has all the conditions for a perfect eco-tourism attraction that it does not have to put up a zipline to attract tourists.
There is more, much more to eco-tourism than a zipline facility. Miyamit Falls can be rappelled, the Porac mountains – Pinatubo included – can be trekked and scaled. How about mountain biking? Or camping?
What I am saying is each town has its own attraction that can be developed in the one-town-one-product mode.
Duplication of attractions will just go the way of the sari-sari store and hot pandesal.
The eco-tourism committee proposed by 1st District Board Member Tars Halili comes in handy here.
Per Halili’s resolution, the primary task of the eco-tourism committee is “to ensure that all tourism initiatives will run parallel with the development plans of the provincial and national government…and are to be within standards for local and international tourists.”
Likewise, the committee takes responsibility for crafting a “tourism master plan for each tourism development site.”
Yes, there it is: each tourism development site need not – should not – be a mere replication of another.
Bawal ang gaya-gaya.
