Tourism exec urges media write ‘positive stories’ despite violence

By Julie S. Alipala
Inquirer Mindanao

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ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—One way of not scaring tourists away is for journalists to write positive stories about a place even if it suffers from an image problem because of violence, a tourism official said Friday.

Mary June Bugante, director of the Department of Tourism’s regional office for Western Mindanao, said she believed there were many stories to tell such as those pertaining to “travels, tourism, lifestyles, cultures and (other) developments (than) what we always read in the papers.”

She said these days, journalists tend to write more  “stories on crimes and violence” and this is not good for the tourism industry.

Bugante said to answer the need for news reports that are good for tourism, they have lined up some activities, including sessions on developmental writing, where journalists can learn to come up with “a positive spin for a place that is suffering from image problem like Zamboanga City.”

“We can still show  (tourists) the other side of the city; it should not just be all about the crimes and violence, even ordinary foreign visitors are still struck with the sceneries such as the hustle and bustle in our local market,” Bugante said.

She said to start with the developmental news sessions, the DOT will conduct content analysis of some local papers to determine how much space was devoted to tourism and other development related stories.

“After the content analysis study, we will be working with the Zamboanga Press Club, and the training is open to interested media to pursue this kind of writing,” Bugante said.

Bong Garcia, chair of the Zamboanga Press Club Inc., said journalists need not be trained by the DOT.

“We don’t need training on how to write development-oriented stories. What they should do is just provide the media the necessary information… and that is really lacking here,” Garcia said.

He also said that journalists know how to write stories.

Coming up with a positive spin out of kidnapping and bombing “is very difficult,” Garcia added.

“The only positive spin that could happen is if there”s positive result in the investigation or a suspect has been arrested in a kidnapping or bombing incident,” he said.

Hader Glang, assistant editor of Zamboanga Today, said journalists just report the news as it happens.

“It’s like fooling the people if we come up with a positive spin to a story like bombing,” he said.