“Dumaguete is simply the place to be. Rest assured when you’re in Dumaguete you will definitely be charmed and experience the fun,” City tourism officer Woodrow Maquiling Jr. was quoted in last Sunday’s issue of MetroPost.
Reading this, the first thing that popped to my mind is the question: “Does Dumaguete City have a massage tourism industry in place?”
I am curious because I have had my share of traveling abroad when I worked in government as a member of an athletic delegation. In those travels, having a massage, was almost always part of the experience especially when I found myself in Asian countries, notably Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan. Massage is a component of tourism in most countries, even in most unlikely places like Nepal and Brunei Darussalam.
The internet informs us that massage, as part of health and wellness tourism, is promoted in “countries like the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the USA.”
It is reported that traditional Filipino massage, hilot, is one of the hottest trends in the spa-health-and-wellness tourism today. Hilot was nominated as the “Spa Treatment of the Year” in the 2005 Baccarat Inaugural Awards in Hong Kong. Plans are afoot to introduce this Filipino healing and massage technique in Europe. A Philippine non-governmental organization and a company in Germany recently signed a memorandum of understanding for the transfer of technology and introduce hilot in Europe. The Department of Tourism-accredited spas are now required to incorporate hilot in their massage therapies. Of some 90 spas in the country, some 37 DOT-accredited spas are now offering hilot to their local and foreign guests.
In 2009, the media reported a public furor over a special kind of massage being offered by massage parlors in Cebu. It’s called lingam (for male) and yoni (for female) massage. Here’s a report of Aileen Garcia-Yap in Cebu Daily News (Oct. 6, 2009) titled: “Spa owners say lingam massage ‘not indecent’”:
“OPERATORS of a spa who claim to be the first one to offer authentic lingam massage in Cebu said the massage is not indecent. Honey Yoo and Bella Bilocura, owners of Authentic Lingam Massage, said the exotic massage has the same purpose as other kinds of massage: to soothe and relax the client. This massage technique involves stroking the ‘lingam,’ a Sanskrit word for the male organ.
Yoo and Bilocura said they were hurt by negative feedback from other spa operators. Earlier Johnie Lim, president of the Spa and Wellness Association of Cebu, said the association feared that the increase in the number of spas offering lingam massage would jeopardize the reputation of wholesome Cebu spas and violate high industry standards set by SWAC for spa operators.
Yoo said that they have another spa in Makati, the Coco Spa, which offers lingam massage. She said the people there said lingam is nothing new to them. She urged Cebuanos to be open to new ideas.”
Curious, I typed “massage in Dumaguete” in the search box and here’s part of a blog that I downloaded: “…I live here from September in Dumaguete. As I spent many months in Thailand, I missed here “so far” one of the enjoyments of Thailand: a good massage. Had hundreds in several places there. So let’s try it here too. To make a long story short: Unbelievable, of course I had not expect to have the massages the same level as they, grosso modo, have in Thailand but what I encountered here, I am still flabbergasted after the last one yesterday. I visited several “ massage-salons “ here, for instance 3 of them in the road behind [name of] hotel (forgot the name of the road) but I would say: better give your money to the beggars next to Lee Plaza because then you do maybe something good with your money. To give a few horror examples: the last one yesterday (200p one hour, including 10% discount considered an oil massage to be a little vague rubbing of the skin while in the meantime masseuse was watching her cellphone and using so little oil as if it cost 1000p a milliliter. Furthermore, staying away from the vital parts at least 40 cm. A few days before had one who considered an oil massage to be something that means using 3 drops of oil to rub your back and that’s it. Before that, had one who almost broke my toes and after a miserable 40 minutes I stopped it all, paid and went away. Useless to comment on it there because they smile and that’s it. I know the difference between what they here call ‘Swedish’ and ‘Thai’. I did not especially come for sex massage or something, just wanted a good massage.”
Here’s a response to the above: “You are sadly pretty spot on. Massages in Dumaguete are horrible AND dangerous. Specially Thai. They have no clue what they do and that can cause serious damage with a Thai massage. Pulling toes, fingers and squeezing the body using stinky left over oil from a McDonalds deep-fryer is a far cry from a massage (so you are lucky one that they did not use that much).
Bending the spine pressuring it directly can bring you in an eye-blink into a wheel chair. I found out on my last try that the verified ‘pro’ who was supposed to conduct the massage was the last 5 years a trained ‘sorry sir out of stock’-announcer in one of the appliance centers here. His massage training was 5 days watching another ‘pro’.”
While the intent of this piece is to encourage our City tourism officer to think about putting in place a good tourism massage industry, I share with him the wisdom that may be drawn from this experience of a tourist: “Makes me think of a similar place in Macau. I was comfortably sitting in a large pool, with a young lady explaining. They had massage, special massage, special special massage, even more special massage. Asked what the difference was, she replied ‘Maybe special massage lady not so good in massage’.”
