Is It Really More Fun In The Philippines?

[Mike S]

Jimenez ...... OMG ...... I wish I could just sell a little of what he is smoking ..... in the first place IMHO .... that is a terrible slogan ...... and in the second Steve hit it right in the head ..... get rid of the corruption and greed and the tourist will follow ..... but then low level governmental employees couldn't drive SUV's and own 4 million peso + condo's ...... hey life is good when you can subsidize you income with bribes and favors ..... ask some of the people on trial or awaiting trial today ..... they can tell you ...... thank god Pinoy is trying to do something about it ..... but I will never in my lifetime see the end to it ...... :mocking:

[billten]

Another issue that comes to mind is perfectly shown by a recent story in the news here in Cebu. An Aussi tourist is strolling down by Cebu city hall with his family. As he walks along, ON THE SIDEWALK, it caves in and drops him a few feet into a drain. He suffers minor scrapes and bruises, but is a little pissed. So as he is right outside the city hall, he pops in and makes a direct complaint about the state of the sidewalks in the city.You know what the Mayor said ON TV!!! that night? "Well, if he doesn't like the state of our sidewalks, he should just go home...", then he saw all the cameras and quickly said "oh, ahhhh, joke lang".This kind of thinking, "you tourists should be grateful to come here and spend your money" has got to go before any other things change. And if the mayor of our fine city feels that way, why in the hell should any of the city employees or other people who cater to the tourists have any kind of a different attitude?

[MikeB]

Another issue that comes to mind is perfectly shown by a recent story in the news here in Cebu. An Aussi tourist is strolling down by Cebu city hall with his family. As he walks along, ON THE SIDEWALK, it caves in and drops him a few feet into a drain. He suffers minor scrapes and bruises, but is a little pissed. So as he is right outside the city hall, he pops in and makes a direct complaint about the state of the sidewalks in the city.

That incident was discussed here. I agree with your assessment, others did not.

[Jake]

It's more fun to be a victim of kidnap for ransom. It's more fun to be charged exuberant price. It's more fun tohave a universal name of Hey Joe. And last but not least, it's more fun to be ignorant as a potential tourist,who apparently does not realize the latest slogan: It's more Pun to be in da Philippines.Tourism secretary is taking advantage of another photo op and filling up the pitcher of warm spit....again.Give me a break -- Jake

[i am bob]

Can you imagine going into a Denny's and being charged 45 for a coffee and 2 pieces of toast for beakfast? How about a 300% increase in the cost of a hotel room for the weekend? Want to buy a beer and watch the fireworks? That's another 12 for the beer - because it's a bar in a government park... These prices are Canadian... Niagara Falls. And, yeah, that is $45 at the Denny's. Tourism is the main business here - it's a city of just over 83,000 locals (by less than 10 at present in 2012) and has over 28 million tourists a year visit. What do you expect from a city PT Barnum thought was heaven. (YUP! He is the one who said "there is a sucker born every minute")My point is - WE may not like the corruption going on but most people have no idea what goes on in the Philippines. Proof that they will go regardless of corruption the number of people going to Thailand! Yeah, everybody knows Thailand is as corrupt as PT Barnum! People go where they hear a name repeated! Canada loves Cuba - why? Because we all talk about how there weren't any Americans there! (Ok, maybe there's a different reason to go there)... Mexico - they keep trying to kill off us Canadians but we keep going back because we hear about it! And everybody keeps coming to Niagara Falls not because there is a lot to do there (not really) but because they hear about it over and over and over... If the Philippines could get their name advertised constantly, it will be like a baseball diamond for dead people... They will come!!! Again and again and again!(What? Never heard of Field of Dreams? :mocking: )Fast trivia: Niagara Falls is the hometown of James Cameron - director extraordinaire of Avatar and Titanic fame and his soon to be unreleased masterpiece entitled 'i am bob am i"...

[Art2ro]

Yes, it can be fun in the Philippines if one can avoid all the pot holes in the roads, avoid seeing all the homeless, the sick and street children begging in the streets, avoid driving through the slum areas part of town or seeing the dilapidated tenement housing where some live instead of under bridges or highway over passes with their dirty yellow stained laundry hanging in the breeze, avoid seeing these rich government officials driving around in their luxury vehicles and living in their mansions with 5 domistic helpers waiting on them hand and foot, avoiding all the immigration bureaucratic red tape and avoiding the constant smell of stinky dried fish! We had more fun during our 4 day short trip in Hong Kong last month, we didn't see any of that what I mentioned above, except for the stinky smell of dried fish or the stinky Japanese dried squid I bought at the airport for a snack to hold me over until we had dinner on the plane headed back to Manila just to get our BB stamped in our passports, which we all got BTW, except for my wife since she is already a dual citizen, but without a Philippine passport yet, her IC paperwork served as her re-entry permit without any problems and we even got an old grumpy looking customs official scrutinizing our passports and documents, but all went well without a hitch! We will surely go back to Hong Kong during their cooler months again next year on a regular vacation, because we really enjoyed it there immensely, good way to get away from the warm weather even at least for only a few days!

Edited March 3, 2012 by Art2ro

[Bundy]

Regarding tourists from Australia. There has always been a perception in this country that Philippines, along with Thailand is a place where DOM go to get rid of their dirty water. Sad but it is true.Thailand has been able to get around this by heavily promoting "Phuket" as a premier tourist destination and it has worked! Many many Australians book holidays to Phuket without even realising that it is in Thailand! So the idea of promoting Cebu or Palawan or similar may have merit but still if someone was to ask me if i thought Cebu would be a good place for them to go for for a holiday i would have to spend a lot of time trying to convince them that, if they could ignore this and ignore that etc etc then just maybe you might like it.

[i am bob]

Regarding tourists from Australia. There has always been a perception in this country that Philippines, along with Thailand is a place where DOM go to get rid of their dirty water. Sad but it is true.Thailand has been able to get around this by heavily promoting "Phuket" as a premier tourist destination and it has worked! Many many Australians book holidays to Phuket without even realising that it is in Thailand! So the idea of promoting Cebu or Palawan or similar may have merit but still if someone was to ask me if i thought Cebu would be a good place for them to go for for a holiday i would have to spend a lot of time trying to convince them that, if they could ignore this and ignore that etc etc then just maybe you might like it.

Unless Phuket has cleaned up a lot (and I do mean a lot!) since I was there last in the 90s, Cebu can't be any worse, can it?

[Bundy]

Regarding tourists from Australia. There has always been a perception in this country that Philippines, along with Thailand is a place where DOM go to get rid of their dirty water. Sad but it is true.Thailand has been able to get around this by heavily promoting "Phuket" as a premier tourist destination and it has worked! Many many Australians book holidays to Phuket without even realising that it is in Thailand! So the idea of promoting Cebu or Palawan or similar may have merit but still if someone was to ask me if i thought Cebu would be a good place for them to go for for a holiday i would have to spend a lot of time trying to convince them that, if they could ignore this and ignore that etc etc then just maybe you might like it.

Unless Phuket has cleaned up a lot (and I do mean a lot!) since I was there last in the 90s, Cebu can't be any worse, can it?

Bob, i'm gonna leave this one to you. When you've spent a bit of time in Cebu, then you can give us your thoughts, i'm sure it will be very interesting.

[i am bob]

Regarding tourists from Australia. There has always been a perception in this country that Philippines, along with Thailand is a place where DOM go to get rid of their dirty water. Sad but it is true.Thailand has been able to get around this by heavily promoting "Phuket" as a premier tourist destination and it has worked! Many many Australians book holidays to Phuket without even realising that it is in Thailand! So the idea of promoting Cebu or Palawan or similar may have merit but still if someone was to ask me if i thought Cebu would be a good place for them to go for for a holiday i would have to spend a lot of time trying to convince them that, if they could ignore this and ignore that etc etc then just maybe you might like it.

Unless Phuket has cleaned up a lot (and I do mean a lot!) since I was there last in the 90s, Cebu can't be any worse, can it?

Bob, i'm gonna leave this one to you. When you've spent a bit of time in Cebu, then you can give us your thoughts, i'm sure it will be very interesting.

Thanks! It's tough when the place I decided to retire to is not one of the hundreds of places I've been to! Phuket was pretty bad when I was there last but who knows?