UNWTO to Lead in Bohol Tourism Recovery Roadmap Turnover

Wazzup Pilipinas!

United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary General Dr. Taleb Rifai arrives here in the country to lead the turnover rites of the tourism recovery roadmap for the province, an output of a multi-sectoral collaboration to help the province recover from the effects of last year's earthquake.

The Bohol Tourism Recovery Plan (BTRP) is a collaborative project of the Department of Tourism (DOT), the United States Agency for International Development under its Advancing Philippine Competitiveness Project (USAID-COMPETE), UNWTO and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). It was developed following a series of fact-finding missions and extensive research over a five-month period.

The document, touted as Bohol's tourism recovery “bible,” contains strategies for marketing the province to the global community, as well as the development of new tourism products that will strengthen Bohol's position as an eco-cultural destination.

The strategies will be a guide book for Bohol not only in bringing back local and international tourists, but also in further expanding its tourism base.

“Driven to Abstraction” by Cid Reyes

Wazzup Pilipinas!

In this writer's early interview, the late National Artist Jose Joya reminded the reader of the universality of abstraction: "It was only during the late '50s or early '60s that I started doing these Abstract Expressionist paintings, and I use that label as mere convenience, a label attached to the New York School of Painting.... Abstraction is an international trend; it isn't a contemporary development as most people would think. Even in ancient times, the Orientals were already doing calligraphy and Persian geometric designs; it isn't at all a recent phenomenon.... No, abstraction is not a time-honored convention in the Western world as it is in the Eastern world."

Credited with having created the first abstract work in the West is the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky. In 1906, he did a watercolor consisting of squiggly lines and blots of colors commingling, suggesting no reference to the visible world, yet seemingly engaged with the spirit, akin to the mysterious power of music to touch the soul. The works of the American abstractionist Mark Rothko were said to move the audience into tears.

Thus, through over a century, abstraction has evolved its many variants, from gestural to geometric to minimalist. In his last public lectures, Kirk Varnedoe, director of the Museum of Modern Art, then in the grip of a terminal illness, kept the faith and trained one final light on abstraction: "It is the production of forms of order that are not recognizable as order, but vehicles of feeling that seem impersonal, vessels of intelligence that appear utterly dumb. Abstract art is a symbolic game, and it is akin to all human games: you have to get into it, risk and all, and this takes a certain act of faith. But what kind of faith? Not faith in absolutes, not a religious kind of faith. A faith in possibility, a faith not that we will know finally, but faith in not knowing, a faith in our ignorance, a faith in our being confounded and dumbfounded, a faith fertile with possible meaning and growth."

UNWTO Chief in PH for International Meets and Recovery Initiatives

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Department of Tourism (DOT) is pleased to welcome back Dr. Taleb Rifai, Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), who arrives in the country today (15 May 2014) for a five-day visit.

Secretary General Rifai’s visit starts off with a dinner meeting in Manila with select cabinet secretaries, businessmen, and officials of the Tourism Congress of the Philippines where he will share the importance of tourism in economic recovery and the vital roles that government, businesses, and civil society play in tourism development.

Dr. Rifai will then proceed to Bohol for the presentation and turnover of the Bohol Tourism Recovery Plan, which was jointly prepared by the DOT, UNWTO, Pacific Area Travel Association (PATA), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The recovery plan was developed following a series of fact-finding missions and extensive research over a five-month period to help the province recover from the effects of last year's earthquake. It includes a communication strategy to bring back the confidence of domestic and international travellers and of the communities, as well as an assessment of tourism infrastructure and assets that need to be prioritized for rehabilitation by the agencies concerned, international donors, development partners, national and local government agencies, and private sector.