"I Heart Iloilo" took about 5 months to make. Four and a half months of which left the idea sitting on the shelf for a while. It all began in March when my friend,
Althea Tan, now based in the US, and I started talking about a website for Iloilo. Something similar to the format of clickthecity.com. In April French, our flatmate in college while we were studying at UP Diliman, arrived from Manila and planned to resettle in Iloilo. We convinced her to join the team. But we had to set aside the project for awhile as I started my teaching career in
Central Philippine University while taking up some Tourism subjects, Althea was preparing for her departure for the States, and French was juggling
Human Heart Nature and a homebased job. The website didn't materialize.
Just recently, I received an invite in
Facebook to join the group "I love Iloilo" (The icon similar to the "I love New York" campaign. I then felt that I must revive the idea and use it for 2 purposes: (1) to Blog about Iloilo and help in promoting the city; (2) as a requirement for my "Tourism Planning and Development" class under Ms. Pearl Arroyo -- haha I couldn't afford an incomplete grade.
The urgency to put up this blog was more because of my concern that there are very few to Ilonggos who contribute to the promotion, not just of the city, but of the whole province as well. I became more aware of the condition of the local tourism during our discussions in my Tourism Marketing class and our recent experience during the Tumandok Exhibit in Robinson's. There is so much to see in the Province of Iloilo and they can definitely draw in tourists if only there was assistance from the government or from private sector. I heard that during the exhibit there was a municipality that pulled out from participating... The reasons were pretty vague, I'm not very sure if they pulled out because they didn't have a budget, or they were just apathetic about promoting their place. I believe it was the former.
Iloilo is beautiful and it is our responsibility as Ilonggos to show the world the beauty of our city and our province.
Kasimanwa, ipakita ta ang paghigugma naton sa Iloilo. (Fellow Ilonggos, let us show our love for Iloilo.)
