Jollygoodfellow Posted December 30, 2009 Posted December 30, 2009 The Philippines passed a law this year that aims to make tourism the main engine of growth by creating three agencies to promote programs in partnership with the private sector. The industry's share of GDP from 2000 through 2007 was 6.2 percent, according to a report issued by the Tourism Department in the third-quarter of this year. Lets look at this from a tourist point of view,I for one know there are many things that need to be done to keep tourists coming back. Training of hotel service personnel is the first thing that come to mind,all the scams in places like in Angeles city need to be put to death.More foreigner regulated services like taxis at the airport.The list goes on.Have you say or forever hold your piece! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Lee Posted December 30, 2009 Posted December 30, 2009 The Philippines passed a law this year that aims to make tourism the main engine of growth by creating three agencies to promote programs in partnership with the private sector. The industry's share of GDP from 2000 through 2007 was 6.2 percent, according to a report issued by the Tourism Department in the third-quarter of this year. Lets look at this from a tourist point of view,I for one know there are many things that need to be done to keep tourists coming back. Training of hotel service personnel is the first thing that come to mind,all the scams in places like in Angeles city need to be put to death.More foreigner regulated services like taxis at the airport.The list goes on.Have you say or forever hold your piece! For tourism to become very successful, they first need to make it easier for tourist visas to be what they are really issued for and not 59 days and then customer service must be taught since people from first world countries expect service and I cannot tell how many times we have eaten in a restaurant and did not get what we asked for or had it served on time or even with a friendly smile and a check back at the table after the meal is most often none existent. Seems once it is delivered then the servers job is done.Then comes hotel and infrastructure, clean aircon filters is not something in the budget and I have had to clean almost every filter at almost every hotel we stayed in and they were filthy and usually looked like they had not been cleaned in many, many months so service schedules are none existent in most places, and if those are dirty, how clean is the rest of the place and spraying for bugs is not a priority in most places because they are too busy trying to turn over the rooms ASAP and do not wish to spend the money on bug spray.The list can go on and on but until the local higher ups wish to listen to those of us who have traveled and who just might know a little more about customer service, and not just have their employees yes us to death, then tourism will never grow to support the Philippines and they would be much better off looking to help those of us who wish to live in and spend our foreign money in their country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mik Posted December 30, 2009 Posted December 30, 2009 (edited) Tourists appreciate a clean country. I'm not sure what is being taught in school here but they should be teaching the children how to be good citizens. This includes keeping your surroundings clean by putting trash into a proper receptacle for collection. I often see people just casually throw plastic wrappers and trash anywhere. Also teach the children how they can help keep the air clean by not burning plastic or rubber. Then maybe the kids can share these ideas with their parents.. Edited December 30, 2009 by M.Morey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jollygoodfellow Posted December 31, 2009 Author Posted December 31, 2009 Tourists appreciate a clean country. I'm not sure what is being taught in school here but they should be teaching the children how to be good citizens. This includes keeping your surroundings clean by putting trash into a proper receptacle for collection. I often see people just casually throw plastic wrappers and trash anywhere. Also teach the children how they can help keep the air clean by not burning plastic or rubber. Then maybe the kids can share these ideas with their parents.. When I stayed a t Davao for a week the one thing I noticed about the place was it was clean,even seen people out sweeping the streets,maybe something is different there like fines for littering? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genius Posted December 31, 2009 Posted December 31, 2009 I me really surprised that tourism accounts for 6 per cent of the economy. I wonder how much of that is returning filams and fil europeans etc Frankly, arriving at Manila airport, is an eyeopener.An international airport which is from the 60s {so it seems} whilst the national one for CebuPacific is pretty nice. So do not know about there priorities. From the airport the roads are choke infested slums with children begging at any traffic stop. Quite often checkpoints with military armed to the teeth. Armed guards everywhere you go. Beggars everywhere you go. Police take bribes left, right, centre and over and below. State institutions barely function. Hotels are either flea pits {Dont get me wrong I m firmly in the 1300 peso to 2000 peso category myself} or amazingly expensive for what they offer {shang ri la etc} Slums abound in most large conurbations. Frankly the whole country is a rather bad joke as far as tourism aimed at 1st world travellers with families goes. For a single man who can rough it, its more of an adventure, what with the amazingly cheap local beer and alcohol, cigarettes, beautiful women, great sun and weather. Beautiful deserted beaches when you tough your way through the toxic roads to get to them. Friendly people when you arent being accosted.But as an established family tourist destination its miles behind thailand, tens of miles behind malaysia, hundreds of miles behind Dubai. What is worse, is I do not seeing the government putting in the building blocks to improve the situation. The one major advantage of all this, is I can go take a 12 week holiday in the phils and its no more expensive than having gone to milan for a fortnight. Milan where a cheap but clean hotel is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMason Posted December 31, 2009 Posted December 31, 2009 Tourists appreciate a clean country. I'm not sure what is being taught in school here but they should be teaching the children how to be good citizens. This includes keeping your surroundings clean by putting trash into a proper receptacle for collection. I often see people just casually throw plastic wrappers and trash anywhere. Also teach the children how they can help keep the air clean by not burning plastic or rubber. Then maybe the kids can share these ideas with their parents.. When I stayed a t Davao for a week the one thing I noticed about the place was it was clean,even seen people out sweeping the streets,maybe something is different there like fines for littering? Isn't that the place where the Mayor is famous for ignoring extra-judicial killings? I wouldn't spit on his sidewalk, let alone throw trash on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Lee Posted December 31, 2009 Posted December 31, 2009 Tourists appreciate a clean country. I'm not sure what is being taught in school here but they should be teaching the children how to be good citizens. This includes keeping your surroundings clean by putting trash into a proper receptacle for collection. I often see people just casually throw plastic wrappers and trash anywhere. Also teach the children how they can help keep the air clean by not burning plastic or rubber. Then maybe the kids can share these ideas with their parents.. When I stayed a t Davao for a week the one thing I noticed about the place was it was clean,even seen people out sweeping the streets,maybe something is different there like fines for littering? I have gotten up many a early morning in Cagayan de Oro to watch the people sweep the streets and clean the city up, so Davao is not the only place that seems to get a clean sweep and without all the extra judicial killings of Davao. I like CDO and may even move there someday if things fall into place. I am sort of torn between CDO and Cebu and both have positives and negatives and time will tell but I would not move to Davao and we have been there and liked it for a vacation but not enough to move there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMason Posted December 31, 2009 Posted December 31, 2009 I don't see the Philippines being a family tourist destination any time soon. As others have mentioned, there just aren't the facilities to attract middle-class families. The govt. strategy to tourism seems to be to continue to ignore the problems of the country, drive more people into poverty, and then let them work as prostitutes to attract more sex tourists. Its worked so far, why change now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Posted December 31, 2009 Posted December 31, 2009 the Philippines has a long way to go before family tourism would ever work so it cannot hurt for us to voice here why & hope someone with a brain reads it & takes it to heart to try to improve their country Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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