I went to the Masungi Georeserve on 15 October with some of my Taiwanese friends who have worked in Manila for years.
We chose the discovery trail, and it was quite physically demanding. My friends and I climbed rope walls, crossed hanging bridges and went through limestone karsts. It was a surprise to us that hiking could be so enjoyable, and not only the natural resources were well-preserved but the whole georeserve was so well-planned and built that we really hoped that we could have similar tourist spots in Taiwan as well.
And then on 23 October, my friends and I visited Bacolod City to join the MassKara Festival which hadn’t been held for the past two years due to the pandemic.
We loved the colorful masks and outfits of the performers, vibrant music and dance and local sweets and chicken inasal. However, it was a pity that because President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. attended the culminating activity of the festival, mobile phone signals were blocked and the sports complex where the culminating activity was held wasn’t big enough for everyone to get in, and thus not every tourist got the chance to celebrate and have fun with the performers.
Visiting the Masungi Georeserve and Bacolod City are two distinct experiences which make me think about what it takes for a country or a city to develop its tourism industry.
Taiwan has been working hard to promote its tourist attractions and hopes that by 2024, the number of Filipino tourists to Taiwan per year will be back to more than half a million, the number of Filipinos visiting Taiwan in 2019.
The Taiwan Tourism Bureau held a business-to-business event in Manila on 20 October and Abe Chou, director of the bureau’s Kuala Lumpur Office told me that they are promoting rail tours and food in Taiwan this year. He mentioned that they noticed that a large population in Manila is fond of cycling, which has been a popular activity in Taiwan for years and many city governments have been building bike trails because of that.
For instance, some parents will bring their kids to have a bicycle tour around Taiwan to visit all the attractions and taste the famous food of each city or town they visit, and it takes about eight to fifteen days to finish that. Back in 2017, some Hongkongers even ordered bicycles online and went to Taiwan to pick up the bicycles. After they finished the bike tour around Taiwan, they would just bring the bicycles back to Hong Kong.
In view of this, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau plans to work with airlines to provide promotional deals so that Filipinos can bring their bikes or rent bicycles in Taiwan at a lower price to enjoy the fun of traveling around Taiwan’s bicycle trails and the picturesque scenery of paddy fields, mountains, the sea and even cherry blossoms in spring, and eat popular street food such as oyster omelet, stinky tofu and shaved ice with mango along the way.
On top of that, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau hopes to invite Gabbi Garcia, the first Filipina Taiwan Tourism Ambassador to visit Taiwan and meet and greet her fans in Taipei next year.
Jane Chen, a travel agent in the Philippines, told me that the flight ticket to Taiwan is only half the price of a ticket to some of the Southeastern Asian countries and it only takes two hours from Manila to Taipei, less than the time needed to arrive in some cities in the Philippines. With the visa-free entry privilege, Filipino tourists can spend the weekend visiting Taiwan and with airlines launching more new routes, it is expected that more Taiwanese will visit the Philippines to enjoy the sunshine and beaches here as well.