According to the Cambridge Dictionary, "obfuscate" means to "make something less clear and harder to understand, especially intentionally."
That now seems to be what exactly happened at the recent media roadshow organized by the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) last August 8.
Local media who attended the event found themselves bamboozled with a barrage of data, statistics and information from TIEZA officials who seem to want to make the impression that they are doing a good job in promoting tourism in the Calabarzon region – particularly in Laguna province, where tourism is expected to become once again becoming a vital economic sector post-Covid-19.
The event may have reportedly left some local media feeling "dizzy" and "confused" not only about TIEZA's actual role in reinvigorating the local tourism sector, but to what the actual situation of the local tourism sector in Laguna is.
Because one statistic the agency's officials cited during the event seemed to negate all the glowing data provided by TIEZA in a confusing mélange of PowerPoint presentations: that the province of Laguna is now ranked last among the five provinces of Calabarzon in terms of overnight and third for same-day tourists.
Not only does this negate earlier glowing reports by the Department of Tourism (DOT) about the province’s tourism sector, this data also revealed the apparent poor job its agencies – particularly TIEZA – had done to promote the province’s tourism industry in the past few years.
Which makes this newsmagazine wonder: has TIEZA resorted to a “tried and tested” trick of showering local media with so much information that they come to the verge of “data overload” – and in the process, hide the real, lamentable situation about what was once one of Laguna’s most thriving economic sectors?
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #DOT #TIEZA