No offence Steve. I don't know you and it's not about you. It's just about the words you wrote. I don't think you realise but posting a comments like that on any blogs or whatever websites you mean didn't destroy the image of Philippines at all. It simply draw the image of the posting person as a wussy looser. A person with no guts. A person who whines all day and sits around and cries like a little baby for years over nothing. Will blow anything out of proportion and create drama to forget about his sad miserable life. But this is just my opinion. I always say that real man should be brave and strong.
Tygrryset. Thanks for you closed minded reply. Lets see then. The bullet scandal at NAIA that has gone on for a long time, where airport staff extort money from innocent OFWs and foreigners, you dont think that destroys the image of the Philippines ?? The sooner you come out of denial mode, and the vast majority of the population, the sooner the Philippines will change. If you believe that ripping off people is the right thing to do in a country screaming out for foreign tourists and investments, then go ahead, How you can say its been blown out of proportion is beyond me, I dont need to destroy the image of the Philippines, it has managed that itself. Try reading the Philippine fail blog, that will open your eyes.
I would not post it it on an open forum........ So highly critical of anything Filipino, and virtually bordering on the xenophobic... After a quick gander, I concluded that In my mind, it is seems far worse than the old "Bahay Ng Ningas" run by some USMC retirees a few years back... If the link appears, please delete, in case some Embassy official trawling the site comes across it and takes umbrage...
But change into what? More like the U.K? Would that be so much better?...Not in my view. The UK immigration scams are far far more financially lucrative and of course..LEGAL.. Ask anyone that has checked out the visa fee`s (and other fee`s) in the UK foreign embassies.. Apparently the Brit embassy scams legally with Brits and Filipino`s being robbed there on a daily basis. They cannot even issue a passport renewal for its OWN citizens living and working abroad. "Really",I hear you ask!! WTF??? Meanwhile jobless EU citizens walk into the UK scott free every day..The biggest scam of all time..The Mother of all scams! I personally think that the bullet scam thing was over done in the press.. Most of the OFW`s caught, really had a bullet in their luggage as it is a cultural amulet..A good luck travel charm.. Here`s an article that helps put things into perspective. http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2015/11/25/1525708/no-end-bullet-carriers The whole episode was dealt with very badly by the R.P Government which only made things get further blown out of proportion. I dont live here with Rose tinted spectacles and I keep my eyes wide open...Thats why its so much more fun here..!! My last few years in the UK.... I was a right miserable Sod..Continuous moaning and groaning, just like my neighbours and work mates... So please...Not so much talk of change in the R.P eh!
So how do you get a 13b visa illegally? How do they conduct the bidding? It sounds to me like something the new President should know about. In one of his speeches, he mentioned the 'bullet' corruption at the Manila airport and no doubt when he cleaned up, as best he can, the drug problem, my guess is he will give his attention to 'tourist corruption'.
Ha.... if he hasn't frightened all the tourists away. Maybe he's hoping for an influx of Chinese. He'll need them. Then again, he changes his story like the weather.
A Filipino friend who actually runs a business in the tourist sector reckons that his bookings are 40% down,under the new President.
that's my experience too. A lot of at least westerner bookings are down - many cancellations. People have been put off by the 'war on drugs' headlines - they don't know that they will never see a sniff of it - and also potential American tourists are put off by all the anti-American posturing from Du30 more disturbingly, it seems to me that it has affected the higher-end tourists more than the lower-end ones. They have been the ones likeliest to reach for the telephone, cancel the Philippines holiday, and go to Thailand, Vietnam, or Indonesia instead. you can never believe Philippines stats, but it will be interesting to see what the tourist figures say when they get released. Absolute numbers may stay up, but I think the numbers of Americans will definitely be down, and I think the numbers of higher-spending visitors per day as opposed to lower-spending ones, as a proportion will also be down.
We are told by supporters of the Duterte administration that the numbers will soon be made up by the arrival of many more Chinese tourists. I am not sure that the administration have talked to the Thai government about this.
the Thais certainly didn't object that 8 million Chinese tourists turned up there last year, compared to the less than 500,000 Chinese that bothered to turn up in the Philippines. The Chinese tourists in Thailand on its own, is nearly double the TOTAL NUMBER of tourists that the Philippines gets of every nationality, and that is a very sobering statistic indeed. having said that, Thai tourism officials do observe that many Chinese come on packages, and spend very little in contrast to Chinese tourists in the western countries who tend to be quite big spenders. But then there is quite a lot in places like Paris and London that Chinese tourists might want to buy. There's nothing that readily springs to mind that they might want to buy in the Philippines. If the Thais complain that the Chinese don't tend to eat much in restaurants even in Bangkok, then what hope does the Philippines have. One thing is for sure. Chinese tourists in the Philippines are certainly not going to be too impressed with Jenalyn the pint-sized bargirl from Samar in the Cheap Charlie bar like Colin, the roofer from Blackburn might be. Chinese tourists in the Philippines will increase at a faster rate than any other nationality in the next few years as they have increased at a faster rate than any other nationality in the past few, including Koreans. but they would have increased fast anyway. Their potential is almost limitless. In Thailand they went up from 4.5 million in 2014 to 8 million in 2015 in just one year - nearly doubling to become the #1 foreign visitor. In the Philippines they only went up 25%. but Chinese tourists in the Philippines have already overtaken the Japanese to become the #3 foreign visitor and must be very close up behind the Americans to become #2.
Fascinating. Hopefully no more buses full of Chinese tourists will be hijacked by former Philippines police officers either.
Quite a few Chinese people dive, or want to learn, and that is one attraction of the Philippines for them. The other attractions are the casinos and no doubt Jenalyn in the bar will attract some, but they can get that, without the language issues, at home, by visiting Dongguan, which I am told puts Balibago in Angeles City in the shade. There are woefully few cultural attractions to be photographed with, however.
Like you, I must rely on second hand information. My attempts to investigate the cultural delights of Fields Avenue when travelling by taxi to and from Clark Airport were, for some reason, not encouraged by She Who Must be Obeyed.
You're quite tall like me .... doesn't She Who Must Be Obeyed understand how difficult it is to cross one's legs in the back of a taxi? The closest I've ever been to Fields Avenue was sitting inside a KLM 777 that had landed and temporarily parked on the spare runway at Clark. We were inbound and NAIA was closed due to a power blackout that lasted several hours. I've also visited Subic - as you know - but the Victory Liner didn't go via Angeles or Clark.
Well I have visted Fields Ave hundreds of times, and don't feel the need need to be coy about it. My family and I lived in Angeles for several years, when I was running a (non-bar) business there. Maybe at last that will give me an advantage over some of the 'experts' on here.
