Just when you thought the Travel Magazine industry in the Philippines couldn’t get any more crowded, here comes another travel magazine for you, Mango, More than Travel. The guys behind this new magazine on the shelves are no strangers to the travel industry. Eastgate Publication has been doing the Mabuhay Magazine, Philippine Airline’s Inflight Magazine for more than 20 years and has just decided to delve into the retail market. Doing inflight magazines is different since most of them are free unlike retail magazines where people have to shell out some money. Does Mango have enough taste to satisfy the retail travel magazine industry?
Mango, More than Travel
Playing on the name of the most popular fruit in the Philippines, Eastgate decided to name their retail magazine as Mango. And wanting to deliver more than just travel, they also delve on inspiring people and communities and articles concerning the environment. Being a contributor in Mabuhay for some time now, I already had an idea when they started production of the Magazine. I was pretty excited on how different it would be when it comes out.
Design
The magazine has a larger dimension than your typical magazines. At first, browsing through the pages I could clearly see that they didn’t depart much from their formula in Mabuhay Magazine. The layout for Mabuhay is clean and has easy typefaces to read. But I can’t help notice that it is largely inspired by the layout of Conde Nast Magazines. Even the cover screams its familiarity. I would have preferred a major turnaround. I thought the choice of cover photo was a bit mediocre. I would have chosen the photo with the bubbles on the table of contents page which exudes a more fun, fresh and dynamic look than the passive stiff pose on the cover.
Content
The lineup for the first issue is pretty packed which is very good. I like that they have options for budget travel as well. For the first issue they have Amanpulo, the most expensive resort in the country. Not forgetting those who scrimp on the budget Palawan on the Cheap is an interesting article as well. I thoroughly enjoy the Best Unique Resorts feature as it’s amusing to see how unique they are.
I think my favorite sections are the Inspiring People and the Special Reports. The interviews on the people have nice snippets of info we don’t normally know about. I enjoyed the well written Special Reports in Laos, Bhutan and Saranggani since I like reading travel experiences more than about lavish resorts.
Photography
Eastgate made sure they hire the best photographers on their main features here like Bien Bautista. I can say the photography is quite good and most of the time, relevant to the story. Though there are minimal misses like the Sky Train to Tibet story which somehow used low resolution photos on the article. Other than that, most of the photos are sharp and rendered nicely. I especially enjoyed the Myanmar and Bhutan Photos on this issue.
Value
I thought that for a first issue, this one is pretty solid. It is certain that Eastgate does know how to make magazines and does show it. Articles are well-written, layout is clean and easily readable and the photography certainly stands out. The content caters for both the high end and budget travelers and has off-the-beaten path destinations as well. I just wish they had decided on an identity and layout that’s clearly their own and would differentiate from their Mabuhay Magazine layout, lest people would dub this as a retail version of Mabuhay. So would I buy this Magazine? Selling for only P150, I would definitely consider. I could say that it has better value than October Eighty’s Tsuper and miles apart from the quality of Asian Traveler Magazine.
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