7.20.06 kulturnatib

Information highway

IF I were to write a tourism dictionary, it would not start with the letter A. It would start with the letter I, with the word “information.”

Those who know a thing or two about tourism know that information is crucial to tourism; in fact, they would agree that tourism is nothing but the chase after, verification, then enjoyment of information.

On a recent road trip, I realized that an information highway is not necessarily one that involves computers and their peripheral equipment, although in this day and age almost all over the world, computer systems, in their various degrees of sophistication, would unavoidably be part of this highway.

Early on in our trip that indeed had “touristic” intentions, I realized just how an information highway is the backbone to tourism. Information that is available or accessible through a highway, that is.

For a country where the grip of winter is legendary -- though climate change is also taking a surprising and tentatively welcome bite here -- the opportunity to take to the road, from late spring to summer, becomes a national urge that expresses itself from short, personal human powered trips on rollerblades, lengthier trips on bicycles, to cross-country trips in motorcycles, cars, mobile homes, tourist buses and, of course, jet planes.

This travel wave crescendos in the last two weeks of July, when vacancs de la construction or vacation of construction workers take place. This is a legally mandated forced vacation for construction workers of all kinds in Quebec, Canada.

Knowing this, our trip was planned to take place before the tens of thousands of construction workers invade the roads. This, it seemed, was the only solid information we had. For the rest, we just planned to drive to designated destinations, look for a place to spend the night and, on the following day, drive on. We only had one sure destination before we departed.

La Route des Baleines (The Route of the Whales) is the route that whales -- from the giant Blue Whale to the mid-size Beluga -- take from the Atlantic Ocean through the massive St. Lawrence River (Fleuve St-Laurent), following their rich food sources.

Highway signs pointing to La Route can be seen in towns along this river where whale watching is a tourist attraction and whale-related merchandise is readily available, though not over-eagerly pushed.

Tadoussac is the most popular of these towns. There, tour operators guarantee whale sightings. Absolutely. These operators offer whale encounters from as high up as a mid-size ship, on fast “zodiac” rubber speed boats or on an even more personal encounter on a kayak in several trips a day in summer.

Tadoussac was our only sure destination. The rest we would take on an “its depends” basis. For this we only needed a Canadian Automobile Association road map.

This is where the information highway started: a piece of paper. As soon as our car hit the road, the information highway (in these parts called an autoroute) took over.

As long as one knows how to read, it is difficult to imagine getting lost on the highway here. And then, one doesn’t even need to know how to read entire words. Recognizing the question mark symbol is often enough.

Following this symbol leads straight to a tourist information center, where, as long as it is office hours, will be open, fully staffed and fairly stuffed with all sorts of printed information, gratuit (for free). Not only free but also reliable.

Only once did this system falter. But we were lucky. We still made it across the river when we decided to do so, though we were the last car to be accommodated on the Ro-Ro fastcraft.

Cebu is miles away from having such a reliable travel or tourism system in place. But several initiatives are being undertaken. The tourist information counter at the Mactan International Airport is a good start. It should be pursued further; otherwise, Philippine travel and tourism will always be at the mercy or grace of lady luck.