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Blog - The Pawikan and the Tropical Experience's Logo Make-over
(written on October 2020)
The official Tropical Experience logo recently underwent a transformation. After 7 years of operations, we thought that a refreshing new take on our company’s symbol of representation would perhaps be a good idea. After some brainstorming and research, taking inspirations and fuelling our imaginations, we are pleased to present to you our new logo:
Presenting: the Tropical Experience Philippines' new logo.
The logo has the image of a sea turtle or the “Pawikan” in our local Filipino language. This was drawn out from our previous logo with a set of 9 sea turtles in a square formation with one green sea turtle facing the opposite direction from the rest of the 8 blue sea turtles. We wanted to stay with our dear Pawikan, and so this time, we just gave it a solo spotlight.
Our previous logo. it was a wild 7-year ride with you guys!
Now, why the Pawikan? Firstly, it’s an animal that gives the tropical feel of wild nature, adventure and raw beauty. The Pawikan lives abundantly in the rich Philippine seas. In fact, out of the seven marine turtle species in the world, five are known to occur and can be found in almost all the seas in the Philippines. The green, hawksbill, olive ridley, loggerhead, and leatherback turtles are spread unevenly in all of the country’s 5 main seas.
A Pawikan sighted during one of our tours, in Mindoro Island (Photo: Tropical Experience).
The Pawikans are undoubtedly one of the most popular creatures in the ocean, especially considering they love warm water and can be found worldwide particularly in tropical and subtropical waters. Whether you are snorkeling or diving, turtles are always a highlight of any trip. It’s an easy favourite!
Apart from its abundance in our local seas, we took inspiration from the symbolism of the Pawikan to build our company’s activities, its values, objectives, vision and mission.
The Pawikan featured in the Philippine currency (1000 pesos bill). The beauty wandering about in the Tubbataha Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
A Pawikan’s life span in the wild is from 50 up to 100 years, with even very few survive into adulthood to begin with (1 in 10,000 survival rate!!!). They have existed there for over 100 million years, so their bodies are perfectly streamlined for swimming. Sea turtles are built for the ocean. These reptiles are capable of swimming massive distances, especially when migrating from feeding grounds to nesting grounds.
Because of their long lifespan and existence, sea turtles often symbolize patience, wisdom, endurance and even good luck. These are some of the qualities we practice and inculcate in our work. (and yes, even good luck, because it’s never a bad thing to have that on our side, too!).
Pawikan pendant necklace, given to me by a loved one for good luck (Photo: Tropical Experience).
A turtle is also a strong creature, which carries the big weight of its actual home on its back. Turtle carries “the world” on its back, grounding it wherever it goes. We see this as the Pawikan being strong powerful, self-sufficient, yet at the same time as free as it can be whilst being in harmony with his surrounding environment. In Tropical Experience, we strive to be independent yet at the same time creating good synergies with our partners, suppliers, stakeholders and our clients. While being harmonious with the environment as well! It’s not a coincidence that the colours we chose were green and blue, representing the environment and the ocean.
Pawikan designed bookmarks with Baybayin scripts. Personalized give-away souvenir item to our guests and visitors during our various ground exhibits and marketing activities (Photo: Tropical Experience).
The sea turtle also symbolizes going with the flow of different currents and tides, settling in for the long journey. Turtles remind us that life is the journey, not the destination. The Pawikan sets the example of changing with the times yet to remain firm with our principles. To be prepared for whatever the long journey ahead would bring. It also teaches us to be open to learning, versatile and resilient.
Here are our beloved Patty Pawikan and Lito Dugong, our character mascots we use for our sustainabilty communications and kiddie fun activities in our travel exhibits and events.
For the past several years, we have seen sea turtles in different parts of the Philippines. Some of the more popular spots are in Apo Island in Negros Oriental, Puerto Galera in Mindoro, Balicasag Island in Bohol, Moalboal and Malapascua both in Cebu. We’ve been lucky to also spot sea turtles just by easy snorkelling in Port Barton and El Nido in Palawan and Pandan Island in Mindoro, among many others. It’s a perfect treat to traveling families, our Family and Fun Adventure Tour C with Bohol, Siquijor and Cebu that incidentally are all sea turtle sighting destinations! The Pawikan offers such a great experience for explorers of all ages.
Hand carved wooden Pawikan toy, along with other hand-made wooden crafts - a Butanding (whale shark) and a Banka (native canoe). All three are abundant in our seas.