Why Philippines is not a favourite tourist destination ?

[ConfusedMe]

I'm not so sure about that Ricky. Look at the other former colonies in the region and which ones have good economies. It's only really Singapore and Hong Kong that you can say benefitted from colonialisation. India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia have only just started to progress economically.
Singapore and HK could grow economically very quickly as they are small places, approx 200sq km and have relatively low populations, 1-3M people. Therefore getting a good infrastructure in place would have been much simpler and cheaper. the other countries in SEA are all much larger land masses and have larger populations spread out all over the place. The reason why these countries took longer to take off economically was that the colonialists didn't want to invest in the infrstructure to join a few farms hundreds of KM apart together. The Phil's is even more of a logistical nightmare due to the fact it is lots of Islands. The US would never have had enough money to invest properly and turn it into another Asian Tiger economy. If you look behind the scenes, you may even find that the US knew that it was going to take far more than they could afford to turn Manila into another Asian economic hub (especially after the cost of WW2) which is why they decided to give it up - and the same reasons why Britain gave up most of it's colonies in the mid 1900's.
Guam is also a US colony, it has a good strategic location on the Pacific. The only investment the US have made there is Naval and Air Force bases. Personally I think the only reason the US was ever interested in the Phils was to turn it into another base so it could wage war in the region. After unsucessful campaigns in Korea and Vietnam they gave up interest and eventually abandoned Subic...etc.
Now that China is a major threat in the region, the US is looking to South Korea and Australia for homes for its Navy and Air Force. Why? The Philippines is better located, but again it can't afford the investment in infrastructure, so it's much easier to go to Korea and Australia as they are fully industrialised developed nations which already have good infrastructures in place.

Me and my dad have this conversation before. He mentioned about Philippines being under US then the country would have been more progressive. This is a totally different view.

[sars_notd_virus]

Philippines will not be Philippines if its colonized by the US....we will just end up to be a fighting ground for any other nations and end up cleaning their trashes...i agree with gparry (post#88) it is nice not to commercialise our country make it simple and beautiful as it is, besides what can tourism do to develop our country?? make it more congested ?? more money to put inside the politicians pocket??

[lastlid]

................ besides what can tourism do to develop our country?? make it more congested ?? more money to put inside the politicians pocket??

What could it do? IF tourism were to be developed then it could take a lot of Phils people out of poverty.

[sars_notd_virus]

What could it do? IF tourism were to be developed then it could take a lot of Phils people out of poverty.

No ''if's and but's''....am very much sure that ''tourism'' cannot save the filipino from poverty lastlid...

[lastlid]

No ''if's and but's''....am very much sure that ''tourism'' cannot save the filipino from poverty lastlid...

I would take your word for it but for the following:

My wifes family (and there are a lot of them) are employed by someone that owns a large holiday resort and theme park. Whats more the the resort and theme park is quite an eco friendly one, to say the least aswell as providing employment to local people and holiday and leisure to both filipinos and foreigners alike. As my wife explains it, once upon a time her immediate family could not afford rice and had to grow sweet potato instead. But not any more and her an both of her sisters enjoyed a university education.

I wouldnt suggest for one minute that tourism is a magic wand that would solve the Phils problems but I would suggest it would help. Providing of course that the government of the day allow it to happen.

I can see the point about the current political climate being a hindrance but nothing is forever and look what's happening with regime change in the middle east right now.