Hmmm... I guess this thread has wandered off-topic.
I just returned from our annual SCUBA Show in Long Beach, CA. Last year there was a major presence by the dive industry in the Philippine at the show (they were the featured destination). This year I only saw one or two, although there were travel deals offered by a number of the vendors.
I believe exposure and recognition of what the Philippines has to offer for divers have taken big strides, at least here in the US northeast (NewYork, New Jersey, Connecticut area). Proof of this is during the 2009 & 2010 Beneath the Sea shows (the largest dive show in the US), there were 6 major presentations by live speakers about the country including 2 each by Hall-of-Famers Stan Waterman and Lynn Funkhouser. One of the presentation was during the international film festival, a major highlight of the show by Waterman. Compare these 6 presentations with almost none in the previous 22 years that I have been a diver.
Personally, I have just about stopped going to dive destinations outside the Philippines since 2005. Yes it was nice to dive in exotic places like Tahiti, Palau, Truk, Papua New Guinea, the Galapagos, etc. Except for Truk and the Galapagos what I saw in these other places are not any diffferent from what I see in the Philippines, which offer the diving in down to earth prices without sacrificing safety and comfort.
What can we do to improve the perception that US divers have about the Philippines? To me, the most efficient way is by word of mouth. Express your experiences, be upbeat but honest about it, and put it in perspective (I always mention that there are more than 40k motor vehicle deaths yearly in the US, which obviously are all violent deaths). Majority of businesses became successful thru this word of mouth. The Philippine government does not have the budget for a sustained/all out campaign to do the promotion by itself. After my slide presentation in a dive club, I was able to attract 6 other US divers to come with me in my trip to the PI last year. The dive shop in the county next to mine are running a 3rd dive trip to the Philippines this year.
Aren't these progress?
Yes, the Philippines is getting there. Everybody will just have to their share.
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