RevJim

A while back the Philippines implemented some new taxes on international air carriers, the GPBT and the CCT taxes. And all the long haul international flights disappeared. The Philippines was taxing those routes on the full value of the ticket, which apparently didn't sit well with the airlines, so they left.

You can read here and here for some more detailed backstory if you are interested.

Looks like they are about to kill those taxes and possibly attract some long hauls back. Story here.

It will be very interesting to see what happens...

EmailKid

Very interesting story, especially the part about how few tourists and flights come to PI. Considering the beaches, one would think they would come in hoards.

And Pilipinos don't seem to try to help the tourist: when I arrived in November I had a general idea of my itinerary, but thought I could add something, but the "information booth" at the airport had NOTHING, nothing to entice me to go somewhere else, or someone, anyone to get me to spend some money.

So instead I spent more time with my friends in Manila, rather than adding an additional side trip and spending more money

And no, I'm not sour, actually going back in January.

EmailKid

beyridge

[QUOTE=RevJim;19931904]A while back the Philippines implemented some new taxes on international air carriers, the GPBT and the CCT taxes. And all the long haul international flights disappeared. The Philippines was taxing those routes on the full value of the ticket, which apparently didn't sit well with the airlines, so they left.

You can read here and here for some more detailed backstory if you are interested.

Looks like they are about to kill those taxes and possibly attract some long hauls back. Story here.

Talk about imperial Manila. I live in Cebu. And got sad that QR and MH had to pull out from CEB hub, discontinuing direct flights to KK (our connecting gateway to Aussie and NZ) and to DOH. And I wish CEB-SIN route will be SQ instead of MI!

Crocodile

Very interesting articles, thanks for posting.
One sentence I found very interesting was:
Currently, the Philippines only has 6 million seats available with about 369 flights weekly, second lowest in Asia and just ahead of Cambodia.
Just shows you how backwards the government is, when the Philippines has a population close to 100m and a siginifcant amount of OSFW leaving and returning each year.

beyridge

Is this statistic based only in the count of foreign airlines (not PHL owned)? Just curious.

RevJim

Yeah I live in CEB too, and the international flight situation is dismal (both here and Manila). The RPI really should be a "minor" international flight hub like BKK. I know that if we could pull it off it would be in MNL after they open the new terminal -- CEB can't pull off that kind of traffic. But just being able to connect in MNL to a good selection of international flights (at a single, modern terminal) would be a big improvement.

I'm kinda hoping this is going on right now: they are about to move all the international flights from terminal 1 to terminal 3, and someone realized "Oops, we have no more long haul routes, and our terminal will be dramatically under-utilized, so we better stop charging the GPBT and CCT taxes to attract them back."

But I have to admit I don't think anything quite so organized and intelligent is going on. It's probably just luck that things are looking a little better.

JohnWM

Whenever I am in SE Asia and I encounter Philippine travelers, they consistently and emphatically discourage me from visiting their country. They routinely tell me of the corrupt government, the dismal airport situation, and various other social ailments in that society that seems to be going backwards. Their dissuasion is effective; I still haven't been there.

EmailKid

Yes, in many ways the country is going backwards

PI gov't is launching a campaign (at least in US) to attract tourists, though I for one can't understand why.

They may attract a handful of tourists, but once the word gets back about how poorly tourists are treated, all that money spent on advertising will be wasted @:-)

Not sure I have a way out for PI's troubles, but it's sad that a country where you can speak English to most residents, a country that has such wonderful attractions, and a country where the natives are so friendly also continually shoots itself in the foot

Seems like they are going through the motions, and are happy to just live off remittances they receive from overseas workers

EmailKid

RustyC

I think the current and previous president both appreciate the tourism=jobs connection, but unlike in richer countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, they haven't funded the tourism-promotion enough to be really effective.

By contrast, Malaysia and especially Singapore punch above their weight in that category, doing TV commercials and producing all manner of brochures promoting even dubious things like the Merlion at Sentosa.

The PI, meanwhile, counts all people coming in on foreign passports in the tourism stats, even though most are emigrants coming back to visit family.

Another problem is lack of a real fly-to beach, like Thailand has with Phuket and Samui and Malaysia with Langkawi. Boracay is the closest thing and the one with international renown, but it's a small and fragile island arguably already overbuilt. Other possibles, like El Nido or other Palawan spots, don't have much air service.

Would have to agree the people are the friendliest in all SE Asia. Manila also had been coming back nicely until they made a u-turn with election of a different mayor in 2008. A typical trip for me might have the first few days weighed down by the "grot factor" and starting to wonder if the whole thing was a bad idea. But that's usually overcome by something in the human element, which stays amazingly upbeat for the circumstances. The country has a lot of very hard-working people who value education and try to do things right, and if they can slow down the population growth, attack the corruption and free up more money for needed infrastructure investments (including airports) they can finally see a real standard of living rise.

BuildingMyBento

MNL's T1 is to date the only airport I've been to (of 224 'round the world) where I was hit up for a bribe. I remember the day like it was yesterday...though didn't budge and continued "freely" into the departures area.

You know, I'll give a small part of its departures lounge (post-security, by where KU has its gate) credit though- they had free ok wifi.

BuildingMyBento

That significant amount of OSFW is a good reason why your ~100 million statement is moot. Sure the Philippines has a large amount of residents more than capable of buying a ticket, but raw numbers don't tell the whole story.

Interesting about the seat availability comment though- a vital portion of those do come from the Middle East anyway.

Akiestar

Actually, VFR is counted separately from tourism arrivals.