A lost Korean tourist in Barlig, the so called Shangrila at Mountain Province’s edge, was the big local news. Well and good he was found alive. Otherwise Barlig would have been renamed as the Shangrila in reverse. Where people don’t live forever and remain good looking and beautiful always, but a place where tourists go to die. And this would have reverberated loud and clear worldwide.
The incident exposed a gaping tourism need—for measures and contingencies—to ensure the safety of all sorts of tourists that are now flooding well-known local tourist towns like Sagada which every other town hereabouts is aspiring for.
One simple measure is to come out with something akin to 911. Press a button which even a kid and an elderly can do and rescuers would know where somebody in distress is located. Help would then be forthcoming and the Cordillera would be known as a very safe place to visit. The cash registers of our local hotels or hostels, restaurants and other tourism oriented businesses will then continue ringing. And their bank accounts would be brimming with cash and the benefits of that would spill over to everyone, and everybody would be happy.
But that is easier said than done. Number one hindrance is our backward mentality and politics. So many reasons would be cited to the effect that it is impossible. Another bar is our antiquated technological situation. Yet technology everywhere is advancing by leaps not by steps and no matter how we deny it, we will be benefited by this.
So it won’t be long before we become technologically capable for assuring the safety of all tourists through advanced or modern communication capability. After all, what is the use of all those satellites floating all over the atmosphere?
And the Department of Tourism people should not be brain-idle as many in government are. They should be breaking their heads every minute of the day to come up with many ways to assure the safety of any tourist who will pass this way.**