No tourist trap

BUILD AND they will come.

Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams  is the movie in the mind of “tourists and local stakeholders” in the City of San Fernando reported recently by Sun-Star Pampanga as “one in saying that this capital city needs to encourage the building of bigger and better hotels…if it is serious in its tourism and development program.”

“Hotels would surely increase economic revenues of the city and spur employment and business opportunities in the area…good hotel facilities are a come on for big events and for tourist wanting to explore the capital city and nearby towns.” So was one realtor quoted as saying.

“The city government should provide incentives to businessmen and encourage big investments on leisure facilities…a hotel facility is a proof that the tourism industry in an area is a sunshine industry with potentials for development.” So was one “frequent traveller” quoted too.

“Hotel investments are also a come on for other support investments. Businesses like restaurants and specialty shops, tourism attractions and local small entrepreneurs are the direct beneficiaries in the operation of big hotels.” So agreed the realtor.

Build hotels in the capital city and it shall be awash in tourists. Simple as that.

Simple thinking, that is.

Given the simple example of Days Inn – at three stars, the highest rated hotel in the city at its time – morphing to a starless Paskuhan Village Inn, onto inoccupancy, closure and oblivion. All in a matter of a few short years. ROI utterly unrealized.

Simply, it is not the hotels per se that pull the tourists in. Unless they’re as majestic as the uber luxurious Burj al Arab, as spectacular as the Atlantis in the Bahamas, or as iconic as the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. These are an attraction unto themselves.     

What is there to see? Invariably, that is the first question a visitor asks of a place. Moving on to a consideration of the satiation of the other senses: What is there to taste, to hear, to smell, to revel in. Where to sleep but of lesser consideration, as a matter of course. You don’t go to a place just to experience sleeping there and, hopefully, see it in your dreams.

So, what is there to see in the City of San Fernando?

The Giant Lantern Festival around Christmastime and the actual crucifixion rites on Good Friday. The third major event, the Tugak Festival in October, gone the way of the Teatro Fernandino and the Magsilbi Tamu Banda 919 – scrapped by the new administration at city hall. All patently seasonal.

On any day, what can the City of San Fernando offer the tourist?

See the Heritage District with its belle époque mansions closed to the public?  

Savor Kapampangan culinary delights that can be had in any mekeni specialty restaurant just about everywhere now?

The next, and even more significant, question: What is in the City of San Fernando that can make a visitor stay?

Sadly, nothing. Bounded by time, both Giant Lantern Festival and Good Friday rites are at most six-hour events. The tourists rushing back home or elsewhere after getting that ghee-whizz feel, the selfie or the I-was-there snapshot.

So unlike the Ati-Atihan of Kalibo with Boracay as both pre- and post-destination; the Sinulog in Cebu with a lot of extra packages, from the beaches to the hills, to Mactan and even Bohol; the Panagbenga with the rest of Baguio, La Trinidad, and Benguet, to cite but three examples. Three-day stays there making the visitor feel shortchanged. And wanting to stay some more, if not to come back soon.

"People coming into (sic) Pampanga would rather stay inside Clark or Angeles City even though the rest of the province have historical, eco and leisure attractions just because of the reason (sic) that the capital city lacks good hotels." Right there is Sun-Star Pampanga’s frequent traveller, but for the wrong reason.

The lack of hotels is not what makes people prefer Clark or Angeles City over San Fernando. 

As much for the accident of geography as for the dearth of attractions, the City of San Fernando is more transit point than tourist destination.

The cities of San Fernando and Angeles virtually share equal distance with the rest of Pampanga. So after going through the circuit of old churches – Pampanga’s foremost attractions now, specially Betis’ Santiago Apostol and Minalin’s Sta. Monica, both national cultural treasures – and the festivals – Candaba’s Ibon-Ebon, Sto. Tomas’ Sabuaga, Sasmuan’s Kuraldal, Sta. Rita’s Duman, Lubao’s Sampaguita, Minalin’s Aguman Sanduk – the visitor invariably retires to Clark or Angeles City – springboard as they are to possible extended sojourns to the Mt. Pinatubo crater lake, Puning Hot Springs, onto Subic and the beaches of Zambales or up north to Baguio and the Ilocos.

It simply is: There is more to see, taste, hear, feel, do in Clark and in Angeles than in San Fernando. That’s what makes the hotels multiply there. Not the other way around.

And then the night time entertainment makes a big difference too.

Build and they will come. It all depends on what you’re building.

And again, even the greater challenge: Make them stay longer.

The City of San Fernando better shift its sights elsewhere.