Advertising: When You Only Want to Tell One Side of the Story

Joseph H. Durano, pictured here, has a tough job. As the Secretary of the Department of Tourism for the Philippines, he has to sell the Philippines as a tourist destination. So he does the obvious: golf, night life, beaches, lush landscapes, water sports and native culture.

Let's not forget Adventure - with a capital A.

From Lonely Planet:

• The best time to travel is in the typhoon off-season from December to the middle of May.
• Travelers are advised to avoid most of Mindanao, an island group in the southern Philippines, especially the Zamboanga peninsula, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and the Sulu archipelago, where ethnic and religious animosities fuel ongoing violence.

From the State Department:

• The Department urges Americans contemplating travel to the Philippines to carefully consider the risks to their safety and security, including those due to terrorism.
• Kidnap-for-ransom gangs operate in the Philippines. Many people who reside in or visit areas that face terrorist threats, such as in Mindanao, travel with their own security force, avoid an obvious presence, or both.

I think maybe Durano's job is too wide-open. He has to make the whole country look like a tourist destination, when really, only a few places are. 7,107 islands is a fact, but only 800 of those are inhabited, and of those, you'd only want to visit a couple.