Time to fly

Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2020 16:00:09 +0000

FLY not to escape the 2019 coro­navirus, but fly on the wings of domestic tourism. DoT Secretary Berna Puyat finds hope in local tours making up for the slack in in-bound tourism.

Ms. Puyat has senior-itas and se­nior-itos to bank on to boost the revenues of airlines, hotels, restau­rants, department stores. As retir­ees enjoying their sunset years, they have disposable income to spend on little luxuries like traveling around our islands; no need to go abroad. As a friend puts it, why would sexagenar­ians, septuagenarians, octoge­narians want to spend 12 hours cramped and cranky in an air­plane?

“No more long hauls for me,” he said, “I’ve done my share of North America and Europe, even South Africa.” Indeed, it’s time for him and others like him to make up for lost time by touring as many of our beau­tiful places as they can before traveling becomes a drag on bones and muscles. With their discount cards, seniors have no excuse not to visit the islands of their dreams, beginning with Ba­tanes, even if the governor, accord­ing to Secretary Puyat, does not encourage cheap tourism or black tourism – what the Gov calls over­tourism – that could spoil the raw and rugged, pristine beauty of their homeland. I would urge those who have not visited Batanes to go take a look, though. Chill. Batanes is an­other country in another century, a “foreign” place to feed the imagina­tion and your camera. It’s where to feast on seafood, to refresh your 2020 vision with stunning views that are neither art nor artifice. Oh, and Batanes does not op
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