Quote Originally Posted by fred View Post
Sounds like callippo has only visited areas of the R.P associated with bars and "sex tourism".. If the cap fits..wear it I guess.
Certainly sounds like he knows his subject matter!!
Where we live those type of bars are outlawed and always have been for as long as I can remember..(and thats all of Bohol)
For starters,go to Alona beach or BBC beach in high season and you will find plenty of western couples with kids on holiday.The malls here and in Cebu are also full of them,spending money as tourists.. Many other areas of the R.P that I could mention with the same qualities.
callippo..Probably not your cup of tea..Right?..
the substandard by international standards malls in Cebu are definitely not 'full' of western tourists with children, that is just not true. Why are you making stuff up.

Even young western couples without children are quite an unusual sight in Cebu, the few you see are just passing through, possibly on their way to Malapascua or Bantayan, though it is true you will see a few of those in Boracay and Alona - minus the toddlers though.

you will just never see the large numbers of European families with small blond haired and blue eyed children in the Philippines that swarm the resorts in southern Thailand year after year (repeat business is high), even in Alona and Boracay. It just doesn't happen.

the only families you ever see in the Philippines on holiday, without a single Filipino member in the group are Asian ones.

just look at the advertisements relating to south east Asia in the UK newspapers. None of them ever mention the Philippines. All they mention are Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

even Burma gets more exposure and advertising than the Philippines. When was the last time you saw an advertisement urging somebody to 'GO TO THE PHILIPPINES' except on a dating website?

as far as tourism goes, you'd think that the Philippines didn't exist as far a mainstream tourism goes. For the 12th most populous nation state in the world, the country is invisible. I've never seen a single travel brochure selling family holidays to the Philippines and I challenge anyone else to say truthfully that they have either.

meanwhile, packages for couples and families to Thailand and Malaysia are all over the UK high street. Long haul destinations a long way behind Spain and Greece of course in terms of sales to families of course - but they're there, for sale, on every high street in the country.

travel agents don't like booking to the Philippines.

they've had too many complaints in the past, and the country has now gotten itself a bad reputation in the industry.

it never ceases to amaze me the level of denial that goes on forums related to westerners and the Philippines.

the main area of denial is this refusal to accept that somebody who has been chatting to some online phantom on the internet for months and then comes out the Philippines and marries them, which any messed up, inadequate slob can do anytime they want, or someone else who's purpose is to aquire what used to be called pre-internet a mail order bride to ship back home, is just as much of a sex tourist as some other messed up, inadequate slob that spends all their time with an SML in front of them in a bikini bar.