Row over Philippines sex tourism remark

[callippo]

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.

[Terpe]

..... 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....

I saw this today, just coincidental timing I guess:-

Bohol Holiday Package

Not that the price is so attractive

[callippo]

lol stop acting like you were just browsing through a UK national newspaper and happened to come across that advert, like you see packages for Thailand and Malaysia advertised, or saw it on the side of a bus, like you see Egypt advertised on the side of buses.

you had to dig around on the web to find that.

just out of interest, I called them up about it.

some guy with an Indian accent picked up the phone in London.

notice there's no reference number in the advert, like you would see in similar packages that actually ARE advertised in the national print press for destinations like Phuket.

hence it was really laborious trying to get the guy to understand what holiday I was interested in. He'd never of Bohol obviously, despite being employed in the travel industry. I had to spell it out to him.

finally the penny dropped for him and he found it. All he could tell me so far was that the initial flight leaves from Gatwick.

but that was it so far. He says he's going to call back 'later'.

I can't wait.

8 days in Bohol from Gatwick and then back home. That will involve three flights to get to Tagbilaran, and then three flights back.

you know what? I hope the holiday actually means 8 nights in Bohol, and not 5 nights in transit and then 3nights in Bohol.

that sounds somewhat tiring.

it also sounds distinctly amateurish.

ithey say thet can deliver a package to Bohol including return flights, and 3 nights at the Bohol Beach Club. Great. So what about the other 5 nights? Where are we supposed to spend those? Sleeping on the street in Jagna?

can't wait for them to call back.