Serendipitous or long-awaited collective awakening?

Either way the country stands to reap a windfall from the two events.

For the longest time the country has lagged behind its ASEAN neighbors in attracting foreign tourists despite the many natural attractions like pristine beaches, rich flora and fauna, diverse cultural events, and numerous historical sites.

But this may be hopefully over following two simultaneous events.           

First,   Puerto Princesa Underground River has been declared as one of the provisional winners in the search for the new seven wonders of nature.

The other six New Seven Wonders of Nature, based on provisional results, were South America's Amazon River, Vietnam's Halong Bay, Argentina's Iguazu Falls, South Korea's Jeju Island, Indonesia's Komodo Island and South Africa's Table Mountain.

The New7Wonders Foundation, meanwhile, clarified that "it is possible that there will be changes between the above provisional winners and the eventual finally confirmed winners."

The foundation said that the voting calculation is now being checked, validated and independently verified. The official New 7 Wonders of Nature will be announced early 2012, it added.

"The results will now be checked, validated and independently verified. Once the voting validation process is completed, in early 2012, New7Wonders will then work with the confirmed winners to organize the Official Inauguration events," Bernard Weber, the foundation's founder and president, said as he announced the provisional winners.

Weber announced that "one or more" may be erased from the list of the provisional winners.

"It may happen that one or more of the provisional winners announced today will not be confirmed during the validation process, New7Wonders will issue a media update should this happen," he said.

The foundation said that more than a million cast their vote since the start of the search. From 440 contenders, the list was trimmed to 220 and then to a shortlist of 77.

From 77, the number of contenders was trimmed further down to 28 and finally the seven provisional winners. The votes were cast through text, Internet and by telephone.

As the Underground River made the provisional list of the new Seven Wonders,  the  Department of Tourism saw the dawn of a more vibrant tourism industry as opposing stakeholders have joined forces to make the country one of the world’s prime tourist destinations.

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez said the previously divided members of the tourism industry have finally come together and now comprise the Tourism Congress.

Jimenez expressed confidence that the unification of the tourism industry would translate to a “golden era for Philippine tourism.”

“Now, we can look forward to the dawn of a golden era for Philippine tourism,” he said. “It is a dawning for you have begun the serious and strenuous task of unification and consolidation under one umbrella organization.”

Jimenez told some 400 participants to the two-day Tourism Congress meeting that Philippine tourism is finally ready to take its place as one of the most valuable pillars of the Philippine economy as well as the Asian economy.

“Your coming together today will guarantee that we will not only compete more effectively than before; we will finally win our fair share of the world’s booming travel market,” he said.

During yesterday’s meeting, TC resolved to include in its membership DoT-accredited tourism enterprises, which have also been given voting power.