I whipped up a new segment here in flipnomad titled “Ask the Nomads” wherein I’ll be asking the point of views of our favorite travel bloggers about various travel related topics that sometimes I personally wonder about.
For the month of June, I asked six travel bloggers:
“Why do you think tourists are hesitant to travel to the Philippines?”
I asked this question because I’ve met quite a number of travellers in the mainland Southeast Asia who doesn’t have any plans of travelling to the Philippines. I myself was baffled because the Philippines has a lot of to offer when it comes to travel. There are so many pristine islands waiting to be discovered and festivals waiting to be enjoyed.
Anyway, here’s the response of our participants for this month’s Ask the Nomads.
“I don’t think Philippines is well known as ‘backpacking’ destination to Koreans. Well, to be fair, there’s not so much ‘backpackers’ in Korea. I’m really a unique case. (or weird? 
) Philippines is well known as ‘beach’ and ‘honeymoon’ place, especially Cebu. I think Philippines has a lot to offer other than just the perfect beach, like culture, or people but it’s just Koreans way of travel. because in Koreans mind, travel equals luxury. So they are finding luxury beaches. Well, it’s a long story to talk about. But it’s popular destination. It’s close, it’s cheaper than other places and it’s beautiful!
“People fear what they do not know. Not a lot of news about the Philippines are good — they’re mostly about a bombing or foreigners getting kidnapped and killed. The tourists I met in the Philippines have the same thing to say about the country: that it’s beautiful and they’d like to return. The travelers I met outside the Philippines, however, don’t know much about our country. That’s one of the reasons why people don’t consider coming here as much: they don’t know what they can expect here and if it’s safe to travel here. Another reason is our location in Asia. Even with budget airlines, going to the Philippines is not as easy as it is to travel from Singapore to Laos, which can be done overland or at least much cheaper by air.
Dave and Deb of ThePlanetD.com
“Having not been to the Philippines ourselves I can’t say that we are experts. But I think that people are hesitant to travel to the Philippines because of the crime rate. There is a perception that the Philippines is a dangerous place. Something like the “Wild West” complete with pirates and bandits. It has a dangerous reputation. There isn’t a lot of literature out there to promote its beauty and not enough people are writing about it to encourage visitors. The tourism board should do more to change people’s perception by inviting journalists and bloggers to show the positive side. We look forward to visiting soon.”
“I think many travelers are just not familiar with the amazing sights and things to see in the Philippines. Part of the reason is because the entire country is made of up of islands, that happen to be inaccessible by land forms of transportation. Once a traveler gets to the mainland of SE Asia, it’s easy to get around and visit many places by land. To travel to the Philippines takes an extra flight which can translate to a little more effort (and money). However, traveling to the Philippines is worth above and beyond all the effort it takes to get there!”
“Initial hesitation on the part of international tourists is first, and for most part, brought on by the prospect of multiple flights. The Philippines by nature is broken into many regions only accessible by flight. So it needs to tackle this element logically.
In relation to this, the first city many people will encounter is Manila. Which is not exactly inspiring, fun, nor enjoyable. The airports are badly linked, confusing, and the international one when flying out is easily the worst I’ve ever encountered.
Internal infrastructure for tourists is very weak compared to neighboring countries. Simply trying to find out how to get from point A to point B is a challenge.
Bad press. Simply put, the antics of your politicians makes people laugh. Used, correctly, it might even become a tourist attraction. But for now, people shake their heads in disbelief. Examples last year alone would be the farce that was the tourism boards new plagerized website and tourism campaign (I won’t even mention the pornographic dibacle attached to it). To the utter tragedy of the tourist bus massacre in Manila, and how it was handle afterwards.
The Philippines has all the potential in the world to become a premier tourist country for all of South East Asia, but it keeps shooting itself in the foot before it can even get to the planning table.
It will continue on this way until someone final takes the Pinoy ego out of the equation, and actually see the reality on the ground. Focus on the end goal of a tourism campaign. Draw up a blue print for this. Relate it to other similar countries based on real tourism not just a junket. Involve national regional tourist sectors. Control the campaign nationally, and not regionally. Make someone fully accountable for the campaign with full transparency.
Could this happen in The Philippines? Maybe the real answer is, if this did happen great things would happen”
“Personally, I think it’s due to a lack of organized and sustained travel marketing by the Philippine government. A single message to put the Philippines into people’s subconscious, so that when they’re planning a vacation somewhere, the country comes to mind would go a long way. Beautiful beaches, diverse islands, wonderful people, and a great deal in southeast Asia, getting people to come won’t be difficult once they hear about it.”
Thank you very much for these inspiring answers. The Philippines weren’t on the first drafts of our itinerary, but we’ve just added it to the list after hearing so many interesting stories. Luckily, we don’t have a fixed RTW ticket, so we have plenty of possibilities to add it to our travel plan.
come visit the Philippines
it’s a very beautiful country 
It’s really nice to read the perception of other travel bloggers about this issue. I agree with Mark that since we’re made up of islands (7,107 islands in specific), some of the destinations can’t be accessed quickly. I’m glad that we now have budget airlines wherein our kababayans can also explore the country with less cost. I’ll keep on promoting my country and blog about its beautiful tourist spots. We will get there soon
yey let’s keep on promoting the Philippines…
When I was staying at a hostel in Melacca, Malaysia I met a Spanish woman who plans to learn diving, she became interested to talk to me when she heard Im a Filipino. For her, diving is synonymous to the Philippines as per her diver friends. But she’s just concerned with the security in the country. — I guess this goes to every westeners (traveler or not). I told her that the country’s underwater world is very diverse and that the country is safe, media is just exagerating.
thanks for sharing some inputs man
im sure she’ll be interested to go once she sees the amazing pictures of our underwater world… one of the most biodiverse regions in the whole world when it comes to marine life 
i hope tourism officials can read this.
nice compi flip!
hashtag #helpdot
Its for us Filipinos to work hard and lessen this initial negative perceptions of foreign travelers, but I assure everyone that once they step inside our country they’ll fall in love with the Philippines. My former boss Greg Dorris (who is the official alternate of Carlos Celdran in the Manila tours) went here as an exchanged student more than 20 yrs ago…never came back in the States…There’s a lot more who made many islands here as their home.
We’re a great destination, problem only was that bad perception brought upon by our messy political system and corrupt practices, once we worked around that, Philippines will be more appealing to travelers.
nice comment Marky, although political concerns might take a longto fix, i think it would also help our economy as well (i hope) hehe
All responses to the question should be forwarded to the Department of Tourism.
this article is posted i twitter with DOT hashtag so they’ll get (hopefully)
Our geographical location is also a disadvantage as compared to most SEA countries which you can all reach by land travel. Flying here is quite expensive as well and surprisingly most of the backpackers I have met in the Philippines were complaining about the lack of cheap accommodation.
and i agree with you with the lack of quality cheap accommodation
hope they build more…
I’ve often wondered the same thing. So thanks for giving us the different perspectives here. I guess I never really considered the Philippines until I started meeting so many friendly Filipinos…I will get there someday.
you’ll surely enjoy your stay in the Philippines
I agree on all of the above. Bad press, bad marketing and zero planning. It does not help that nothing gets done to ramp up tourism because of bureaucratic red tape. Also, if you think about it not a lot of Filipinos are able to travel around the Philippines because of it’s geography. There isn’t a lot of infrastructure for seamless transport unlike in Europe or America where bus or trains are alternative options to airplanes and slow moving ships/ferries.
In some ways though, I am glad that our gems are still hidden. Obviously for selfish reasons =)
i just hope that the philippines together with other countries work harder on sustainable development…
Great post! I was hesitant of the Philippines the first time as well, I had no idea what to expect; now it’s among my favorites and I often return
glad to know that you enjoyed your trip in the philippines roy
i say no to bad press. i met a surf school owner who told me that most international surfers seldom go here due to bad publicity.