Which of these situations could make tourists NOT want to return to the Philippines?

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PerpetualTraveller

Please do not report me to the immigration after I type this:

1) Cheating and overcharging/not giving back change. This happens on buses,tricycles, or jeepneys and in many other situations often in the countryside. Taxis overcharge and refuse to convey passengers or use/turn on meters.
Sometimes you agree on a price, but halfway there, they ask for more money. It is shocking!
Taxi drivers many times do not know their own city and where different places/barangays are located.
2) Bad customer service- arrogant "masungit" clerks ignore customers, when a legitimate complaint is made about a product or service, they get mad at the customer. No prices on items. You ask a clerk information about some item and he/she does not know it.
Products/foods are not available even though they are on the menu or advertised on a poster in a store. In the US, this would be considered false advertising and the store would have to pay a fine.
3) Crazy drunks wanting to pick a fight.
4) Scornful, indignant and mocking looks and comments when a white man is with his Filipina GF/Wife. All white men are GIs and their Gfs are all prostitutes. Imagine, you make a female friend on the internet and go and visit her and you have to put up with eyes drilling you and lips curled up in contempt- and you are a teacher and the lady is a nurse. Some people will not want to come back. It does get on your nerves.
5) 7000 islands but not many beaches because of 'nilad'. One needs to go to a resort. White sand is seen as a treasure. In the Caribbean for example, if you see the sea, you just walk to it and there is a white sand beach.
6) The food is not that great and not very healthy. Lots of greasy stuff, lots of pork. The way Western food is made is not the same. Stale doughnuts, sweet bread with mayo -yech! bright red hot dogs with banana ketchup. Beeeyaaaaaaakkkkhhhh...
7) Just pick up a newspaper and read a few articles- according to them, the country is the poorest and most corrupt on earth with the highest crime rate on earth and the worst, dictatorial government in the world all going to hell in a hand basket. Just going through a few front pages would make you want to hire a bodyguard and run to the nearest airport asap. Luckily, Koreans cannot read English so they are the happiest ones there and keep investing like there is no tomorrow.
8) Of course, everybody thinks his country is the most beautiful, but many historic sites are not being well presented to the public. When you go to Thailand, everybody wans to take you to the nearest temple and explain the culture/religion to you; in the Philippines,people do not like to take you to churches or museums and almost never promote them to you.
9) Why 21 day visas on arrival? What can you do in 21 days? Make it 90 days like Malaysia and Singapore.
10) Oh, yeah, one more thing- please teach your young children and even older people to stop pointing fingers at Brits, Germans and Australians and chant "Americano Americano!" They are not Amerikanos...They have their own country that they are proud of just like you are proud of yours. I am sure that you would hate it if we pointed fingers at you and shouted "Cambodian, Cambodian!"

Otherwise, the country is great!

If you want to promote tourism, you need to start promoting the country and allocating large sums of money to creating steady tourist routes and extra cheap flights. Advertise the Philippines on all cable networks all the time. Leave a number to call for a cheap flight. Let tourists spend money when the arrive, not on the airplane.

curiousgorgette80

I wish that Manila were cleaned up a bit more. Aside from Makati and some others tourist hot spots most of the city is littered with trash. I think that if the rest of the city were to become more modernized and clean it would attract more people. All countries have pollution but whenever I visit the Philippines it's the the first thing I notice about the capital city. I am only making this conclusion after I have visited other major Asian cities like Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore. I think that if the city were cleaned up then tourist would be more comfortable visiting.

Big P

Oh Inday, I like your straight forwardness. That's all it takes to discuss real topics. Its not putting the country down, its about highlighting issues that may need attention to raise awareness.
Many Foreigners have had different experiences during their visit in the Philippines. Some good and some bad. I don't know if the good out weigh the bad.
The folks who had bad experiences might be the one's who have went the extra 9 yards to slanderously degrade and depict their Philippines experience as a way to counter attack what they went through. The U.S. Embassy could have collected a number of these complaints.
Information by word of mouth travel very fast especially bad news and information. This is the kind of information that is not screened and monitored.

ADD:
Its obvious how tourism is not great when you see locals stare at you so hard like your a Giraffe or Zebra. (laughing)

You walk into a restaurant at certain locations and you feel like your making a grand entrance. That make me feel a little uncomfortable at times.

Foreigners are known to have money and spend it. This attracts hustlers from every crack and hole from the ground.

Joe

I agree with everything Perpetualtraveller said above with 10 thumbs-up

Juan C

* security issues

Qï½žâ˜…

Really sorry, but have to say Security Issues.
Most tourists have the impression that the Philippines has those rebel attacks etc. It's the media's fault anyway.

Darkentity

I dont think tourists care about the first 3 factors (take thailand for example, they have the same 3 factors but is the most popular tourist destination in Asia)

Security issues I think most are quite aware of the situation here and will keep away from troublespots.

Most of the problems you listed above are applicable to only metro manila (tourists dont usually plan on staying in metro manila anyway)

Some issues which can turn away tourists to other neighboring countries?
- bad transportation network, difficult to get around metro manila (reputation made worse by the recent ferry disaster)
- very basic airport (compared to tourist hotspots like bangkok)

basically philippines needs to quit competing with neighboring countries like thailand and malaysia and try to offer something dofferent (for example focus on adventure destinations) A good example is new zealand which does not try and compete with giant australia. They just focus on what they are good at (adventure and nature )
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ScarletRaven

PerpetualTraveller is right. We have lying cab drivers who overcharge, kids who think all Caucasians are "Americans" and an overall mentality that white men pick monkey women for wives. It's not fair. And if we want tourists to visit our country we need not only to improve our secirity and government, but to observe the same improvement among ourselves.

theonethatgotaway

all of the above and more

Beetlle

hold- ups and pick pockets

Pacificriders

As a Fil-am, my only real concern is the risk of being a in a terrorist attack( like the abu sayyaf). other than that, I love the Philippines, even with all its faults.

I have been to the Philippines 4 imes in the past 3 years and with all the problem that is there welcomeing feel makes up for all of it . If I had to pick one it would be traffic.

M Morato

Must be security issues. Hot weather and pollution can be addresses by what you wear, or where you go. But when you fear for your life as you travel, there is no way you will enjoy the tourist experience.

Jongbong (ì¢…ë´‰)

zzz... i have to agree with PerpetualTraveller's answer... except number 3... hmmm... beer... zzz...

sirchas2002

PerpetualTraveller' answer does hit the majority of the problems for tourist in the Philippines. Another one i would add is lack of standards. I am in the travel industry here in the Philippines and still get shocked when I visit hotels and see what they call 4 or 5 stars. there is even a town in the mountain province that rated one of its "hotels" with 5 stars and it only has electric 8 hours a day.

I think Perpetuals answer number 7 is also a major reason why tourist do not come in the first place. It is also a reason why there is less pride in the Philippines leading to answer 8, which also leads to the destruction of some of the natural beauty of the Philippines , logging, mining and destructive fishing practices that pushes out the tourist.
tourist get a bad impression when they arrive in Manila. The airport is dirty and run down, high priced taxis and as soon as they leave the airport police in military uniforms holding assault rifles.
tourist arriving in clark get a much better first impression

Binibini

my husband does not want to go to my province in Mindanao because he said it's too dangerous.

Hot Head

Whoa...... 10 points to Perpetu...a!!!!

Gary VI

Terrorism in the south.

(And that of WELL in the north.)

europhile

For me...

> Security issues

and

> The airport. I mean, let's face it... compared to other airports in the region, NAIA ranks poorly (especially that NAIA Terminal 1)... c'mon, the airport is the first place that tourists will see when they come out of the plane,and usually, they will get their first impressions from that... that's why many cities in Southeast Asia like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore really have good and modern airports, so tourists would come back there... I'm so glad this government of ours finally decided to open that Terminal 3...

That's it... sorry for those who did not like my answer :"(

flip8

pollution air and land, over population in small areas, some of the drivers should definetly need to learn how to follow the rules and regulations, nakawan, hold ups and such....i still love my country! but somebody needs to do something about this.

Clarisse

All of the above

hettitiern

I experienced everything that and rampant corruption among officials, I come back anyway (and not for the girls). I just like it..very much. If you want to improve anything start with the officials, they set the example.

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