if anything the 40 per cent figure is on the low side as far as I'm concerned. 40% might be about right for those seeking adult entertainment in places like Angeles, though don't forget such entertainment is available in every city in the Philippines of any size and even very small towns. If you include the men chasing online webcam phantoms and the 'fiance' and 'marriage' tourists who are also surely sex tourists by any objective standard, then the figure is probably closer to 70% - at least when it comes to men from the west.
though the sex tourism figure for men from countries in Asia, who comfortably outnumber the western tourists, is also high, a lot of them might just go for a week or two with their families from places like Korea which freeze in winter. When was the last time you saw a western family with three children on holday in the Philippines? I've seen plenty of Korean, Hong Kong, and Japanese fanilies, but as for western ones with no familial connection to the Philippines, and coming from outside Asia, I don't think I've ever seen it once. The place scares them. I see two white adults with young children all the time in Thailand. In the Philippines - never.
fact is there are comparitively few reasons why anybody would want to go to the Philippines as opposed to other countries in the SEAsian region for any reason other than sex or 'romance', even Thailand, which is supposed to be the bigger sex tourist destination.
the weather is bad, and the food is worse.
the cultural 'attractions' aren't all that appealing to most. Most westerners aren't all that keen on videoke to say the least, cockfighting is not something they are likely to embrace with gusto, and the Wowowee-type shows on the television 24/7 aren't likely to cause an artistic Damascene conversion. There is this feeling that somebody from a Christian country anyway, and who is used to seeing churches everywhere, is going to be far less impressed by a 350 year old Catholic church, than a Buddhist temple which they may never have seen anything like.
the infrastructure, and especially the tourist infrastucture, in the Philippines is terrible.
it's expensive to get to, and when you do get there, you find that they want double what everyone else in south east Asia wants for a room.
the corruption and level of (non) law enforcement is so terrible it can be downright dangerous, as that busload of Hong Kong tourists found out to their cost in 2010.
when you come right down to it, there aren't all that many men from the western countries who would possibly want to go to the Philippines for any reason other than sex or romance.
