Zoom IN Postcard Project

My inspiration to hold a photo contest last year was to come out with a calendar that featured the different tourist spots in Ilocos Norte.  Kasi di ba politicos usually distribute calendars during Christmas and New Year with their faces on it?  Yung may "Season's Greetings from Mayor So-and-so."

I just think its to 'trapo-ish' and cheezy for me.  I told myself, kung maglalabas din naman ako ng kalendaryo, might as well one that features my province's tourist assets.  Kasi we lack in that department and I like to help boost our tourism economy.  Kasi it helps the mom-and-pop businesses dahil nga dumadagdag ang mga customers nila.  It also helps the working sector because more jobs are created.

And that's why I organized the ZOOM IN Photo Contest.  Unfortunately, by the time I got the pictures and awarded the winners, it was last week of December na.  There was literally no print work going on kasi holiday.  And when business resumed in January, the printer told me it would take them 3 weeks to print the 15-month calendars that I wanted.  So, February na lalabas.  That was too late.

It was my fault.  I should have held the contest earlier.

Anyhoo, here I was with a bunch of great photos of the province and no calendar to print.

What else could I do with them that wasn't schedule-dependent?  Naisip ko na we also lack in the post card project.  I mean seriously, you go to National Book Store and look at all the postcards, how many feature Ilocos Norte?  More often than not, wala.  Mostly Manila, Cebu, Boracay, Palawan and Davao yung mga postcards.  Kung from the north, usually Vigan.  Wala o bihira ang may postcard ng Ilocos Norte.  Kung meron man, Paoay Church lang.

And so, that's what I did with the ZOOM IN Photos.  I turned them into postcards.  I picked 12 photos that depicted the different tourist spots found here in the province.  Some are well-known, like Saud Beach, Paoay Church, Cape Bojeador Lighthouse.  I also put the lesser-known tourist spots, like Kapurpurawan Rock Formation, Kaangrian Falls and Pangil Beach, to spur up growth tourism in those areas.

I printed 500 sets of those 12 photos.  So that's 6,000 postcards.  I gave away 250 sets.  The other 250 sets, I sold by consignment so that I could recover the costs.  Kung maganda ang reception, I will print out more.  Pag-hindi, I will venture into other souvenir products like keychains or ref magnets.

Again, my little contribution to spur up growth in the local tourism sector.