In 2014, tourism in the Phils accounted for about 7.8% GDP. Estimates for the Thai industry range from 9% to 16%. For France its 7% and for the UK its 9% of GDP. These figures are not terrible. I would also add that the Philippines still managed to attract you enough to travel there repeatedly.. Do you have anything positive to say about the place? In the last 7 days you have also suggested: 1. That replacing all Filipino people with Chinese people would turn around the country. 2. That a Filipino wife will likely rob you. 3. That the Phils has an 'Asia culture' of 'concubinage'. I feel that its clumsy at best and rude at worst to make some of the remarks that you do given the demographic of this forum.
I get on with the Philippines just fine, thanks. However I have observed - and it is just my opinion - that the Philippines tourist industry is not up to scratch. the reason why the RP tourist industry is not that much smaller as a slice of GDP than the Thai one is is because the rest of the Philippines economy is backward compared to the Thai one too. It is not just the tourist industry that falls short. The numbers just speak for themselves. The Thais got just short of 30 million arrivals last year - easily their best ever. The Philippines only just got 5 million for the first time, also their best performance but from a very low base. Thai arrivals have DOUBLED in the past six years (i.e. increased by 100%). Philippines arrivals have also gone up from the very low base but only by about 60%. there is a multiude of reasons to explain the Philippines poor performance. Some of them are beyond the Philippines' control, and some of them aren't. And one of the things that aren't, or wasn't, beyond the Philippines' control is that the financial infrastructure for tourists is totally appalling.
Nonsense. You're basing that statement on difficulty using travellers cheques - something that many people don't bother to use nowadays because of the easy availability of ATM machines. What you're bemoaning is that you are charged fees and that you don't get the rate that you would like. Well. Tough. I expect that most visitors to the Phils have no such complaints. You also conveniently ignored the remainder of my post about your other, pretty offensive remarks.
'easy availability' of ATM machines? Are you kidding? the provision of ATM's in the Philippines is totally appalling and in stark contrast to at least two of their main competitors Thailand and Malaysia where ATM's never run out of stock and are never 'offline', Ask the Thais what an 'offline' ATM is, and all you'll get is a blank stare. They won't know what you mean. In the Philippines it is a daily reality. I had a t-shirt printed - ATM OFFLINE. It is a cliche, of the Philippines. Thai ATM's charge foreign cards the same as Philippines ones do anyway. in the Philippines entire islands, like the Camotes, with 100,000 plus people on them and that are supposed to have a tourist industry, a key component of the local economy, have no foreign ATM at all! Do you think that happens in Thailand, or Malaysia? even places that are supposed to be major tourist destinations, like Moalboal in Cebu, for years had to ATM at all. Until 5 years ago you had to go to Carcar, 50km away to use an ATM! then they got a foreign ATM in Barili which was an improvement, but still 28km away from where the tourists were. more recently still it has improved and now there is 2 ATM's in Moalboal - one of which is a 360 Pharmacy - but like elsewhere in the Philippines they are just not reliable. almost nowhere takes cards like debit and credit cards, and although this has also improved, it is still very bad. People can be amazed that diving operators can not take cards and that customers are expected to pay large amounts for diving courses of a few days, tens of thousands of pesos in some cases, in cash. this appalling foreign exchange situation has got round the grapevine and has served to help to give the Philippines tourist industry the sadly bad reputation, that it has. Travel agents don't want to deal with the place. They've had too many complaints in the past, when they have. when they were developing their tourist industries, Thailand and Malaysia - and now Vietnam which overtook the Philippines in arrivals 2 years ago - were/are serious about the industry. The Philippines isn't.
That's your opinion. I don't agree with it. The Philippines isn't that bad. I haven't encountered any offline ATM machines or problems and have used my debit card in loads of places with no issues. I wish that you would reply to my earlier point but I can see that you don't want to do that.
I have to agree with Whipster that the Philippines has not really got its tourist industry "into gear". There are a multitude of reasons for this, but they must include a certain number of natural handicaps: 1. Distance from Europe and from North America 2. Lack of good airports adjacent to the places where tourists might want to go - you will be changing planes to get to almost all the tourist attractions. 3. A lack of an "interesting and exotic" culture such as Thailand and Vietnam have - the Philippines is at best as exotic as Mexico, from whence much of its culture originated. The cuisine, for instance, is unremarkable, the religion is Catholic and there are no interesting monuments. Then there are the handicaps that the Filipinos have imposed on themselves: 1. Top of the list - the bus hijacking in Manila in 2010, This killed tourism from Hong Kong stone dead and did much the same for Mainland China and Taiwan. 2. Awful infrastructure. The attractions are the beaches and perhaps particularly the diving, but getting there is "hard work" 3. Oddly enough, the tourist industry is not "family friendly".
That's exactly what I said. Some of the reasons why nobody really wants to know re tourism and the Philippines are beyond anyone's control, like the fact that a megathrust earthquake could happen at any moment and that it can rain anywhere in the Philippines on any day of the year while in Thailand it is guaranteed to be dry between November and February. What is seen as bad weather impacts the Philippines marketability as a 'winter sun' destination considerably. Some other things not covered by Methersgate : POOR MARKETING : When is the last time you saw an advertisement for tourism to the Philippines? The Thais were brilliant here. In the 80s they went for the Germans. In the 90s, other Europeans and especially Brits. In the 2000s, they saw that the Russians were the coming thing, and come they did. In no time at all, the Russians were the #1 foreign visitor. Some years ago whatever idiot had the job of Philippines tourism minister at the time announced they were targeting Russians having seen what the Thais have done. But they failed abjectly. From memory, I think the Philippines got about 80,000 Russian visits last year. The Thais got a million and a half. THE PHILIPPINES IS NOT 'ON THE WAY' TO ANYWHERE. People use Bangkok and KL airports as hubs like on the way to do gap years in Australia and this bumps up their visitor numbers considerably. A point particularly well made by Methersgate is the lack of family-friendliness of the Philippines and in fact the Philippines supposed 'love of children' is one of the greatest myths, about the country. They like having babies for sure but that is something different. I love the Philippines, but if I were a travel agent and a couple came into my shop with two kids and said they wanted to go the Philippines, I'd try to talk them into going somewhere else - probably Thailand.
Dick Gordon's campaign when he was Secretary for Tourism under Arroyo was the last time most of us will have see an ad: http://www.itsmorefuninthephilippines.com/
The Thais and Malaysians go on the side of buses and on pizza boxes. I know the Philippines is a bit of a tricky sell, but they could have made more of an effort.
Yep, you're looking at 12 hour flights in both cases. Philippine Airlines starts flying direct to Vancouver and New York from Cebu next month and also, I believe, to Los Angeles. That will be more convenient for those wishing to cook on a Bohol, Moalboal or Bantayan beach. But Qatar could not make its Cebu-Doha service pay. Yes - although places like Vigan and the rice terraces of northern Luzon, which are spectacular, could and should be made more tourist-friendly. That depends on how you define "family". If you really mean they're not child-friendly then I agree with you wholeheartedly. Being the parent of two young children, I am less than impressed that Malls and other public-access buildings - especially airports - are neither particularly disabled-or-child-buggy-friendly. There seems to be an aversion to installing lifts and, if they are installed, they're often "out of service". Add to that the petty jobsworth attitude of SM Security guards who won't allow you to take a pushchair on an escalator even though the nearest life (in the next building) is broke!
Yes, I meant "Child-friendly". Long ago, when Manila's red light district was in Ermita and around UN Avenue, that part of town was actually known as the "tourist district", which says a lot about the sort of tourism that Filipinos were expecting.
I use to love a good night on the town in Angeles city and Subic with the lads having a drink but would not get a lady has the missus would kill me has she was always with me lol.
Careful. Others mentioning such places on here have been labelled 'sex tourists'. (I have been visiting or living there (Angeles) for 26 years...running a none-'sex-tourist' related business, and all of that time being either engaged or married with kids).
We had a similar thread here previously and I have to agree with whipster with his general displeasure at the many problems for tourists visiting the Philippines. I enjoyed being over there as a backpacker/diver as a single man but travelling around with young kids is a nightmare. I swore I would not go back there again and I haven't been back since 2013. My family will go over in 2018 when our kids are older and more able to handle the many quirks of travelling in the Philippines.
I can't imagine travelling around the Philippines with young children. That's very true. The discussion at the time was not related to Angeles and indeed that was specifically stated. The above may have been your interpretation - but it's not correct.
You have hit the nail smack bang on the head there Andrew without a shadow of doubt. I must say though that what makes the Philippines special for me are the people, I've always adored them.
