Remaking the Post Office

(Main Post Office Building at night. Photo from internet)

The coming of e mail and the internet age has greatly diminished the significance of the post office in every town and city. But instead of simply accepting this fate, I believe the post office should be re-invented and given a new role.

My proposal is for the post office to be made into a nexus of all travel and tourism related activities in a community. The idea is for the post office to serve as a tourism center apart from its traditional role of receiving and delivering mail. Thus in the new post office one can find amenities related to traveling such as a money exchange shop/bank, a souvenir shop, a cafe, a car or bike rental facility and even a few rooms to accommodate outside visitors who will happen to drop by. As a tourism beacon, it should ideally be located in the middle of a park showcasing the capability of the town to create and maintain beauty  and given a distinct architectural brand, look and identity recognizable everywhere it may be found in the country.

I believe that this idea will help the post office maintain its relevance in a community and at the same time help promote local tourism too. Thus, this can be a joint project of the Philipost and the Department of  Tourism with participation from the private sector.

Some people may find the idea of the post office as having a lodging component as wild. But I find this very logical and a boost to local tourism. Many towns in our country do not have inns or hotels to accommodate travelers and difficulty in finding a safe, reasonably affordable and decent place to stay can be very discouraging for tourists and travelers.

The idea for this proposal is neither new nor far fetched. In Japan, there is a historic post office building that was turned into a themed mall, inspired of course by the post office. The name of this mall is Kitte which means stamp in Japanese. The mall has a cafe that serves regional specialties thus boosting the local economies, it also has a stationery and souvenir shop where it is possible to buy an aerogramme shaped like an airplane etc.

I do hope that our Philpost and Department of Tourism seriously consider this idea. If successful, this enterprise can be a great legacy of the Aquino government.

  (The Post Office in our town looking sad and forlorn. Most people have come to accept that the Post Office is a withering enterprise. With visionary leadership and imagination however, it is possible to re-invent the post office to make it a proud central feature of a community.)