Row over Philippines sex tourism remark

[Englishman2010]

Callippo, you make some very good and interesting points in your posts. I completely agree with you regarding the poor infrastructure, food, corruption lack of law enforcement and relative high costs of a holiday in Ph compared to other SEA countries. I still believe that the sex tourism thing is restricted to those parts of the country that have built their tourist industry around it. As Fred says, Alona Beach on Panglao and the Bohol area in general are nothing like AC, they are very tourist friendly places with lots of western families there. Similarly, Palawan and Caramoan are also like Panglao. I've seen most of the major Ph tourist hotspots in the last couple of years, and even Puerto Galera and Boracay have done a lot to clean themselves up and attract real tourists.
Some single men who travel to the Phil's and SEA are plain and simple travellers or adventurers, scuba divers, mountaineers, trekkers who like to see a different side of the world, if they happen to meet an Asian girl on their travels and form a relationship does that make them a sex tourist

[Steve.r]

Unfortunately, people only see what they want to see. I have not travelled extensively around Phils like some, but I have not seen the seedy things that have been described. But dont these things happen in any major city in the world. You can walk around Bournemouth, Bristol any town pretty much and find sex workers. Just because it is highly reported in Asia we all assume it is a haven for those wanting sordid sex. Like Ian says, many travellors are there to experience a differnt culture and what it has to offer. If they have a holday romance so what?? Thats how I met my wife.
Reports about the sex industry in Asia just goes to back up the age old sterio-typical views of the 'West' about Asia.

[callippo]

Some single men who travel to the Phil's and SEA are plain and simple travellers or adventurers, scuba divers, mountaineers, trekkers who like to see a different side of the world, if they happen to meet an Asian girl on their travels and form a relationship does that make them a sex tourist.

I agree with this and no it doesn't. I recognise that this group does exist.

but to suggest that sex tourism is confined to only a few areas of the country like Angeles or Subic is well wide of the mark.

Cebu is crawling with them, and I'm not just talking about the habitues of the bars on Mango. Even the smaller cities like Cagayan de Oro have their share. The kind of slobs who sit around drinking themselves into a blob all day while there's a pool of mostly bored out of their minds professional foreigner-shagging girls, some of whom some of them may have married, in attendance.

then there's the online daters, or 'marriage tourists', come to the Philippines to meet women. That's why they've come. Any other reason they've come is purely ancillary. This makes them primarily sex tourists. The Philippines, unlike families with children, who are conspicuous by their almost total absence, is full of them.

you might think, oh they dated only one, or only a few women, and then ended up marrying one. That's not a sex tourist.

but where do you draw the line? One? Five? Twenty? Fifty? A hundred?