Why don't more tourists visit the Philippines and Indonesia?

[herenow1]

Originally Posted by Suburban_Guy

My guess is that more people visit other countries like Thailand than Philippines because of perception and more importantly awareness.

More people are familiar with Thailand from the media than the Philippines. Multiple movies have been set in Thailand, and Thai culture in general seems more present around the world than from the Philippines. Look at how many Thai restaurants are in your neck of the woods. And I would also say that more people perceive Thailand as safer to visit than Philippines, and perhaps less corruption as well though corruption certainly exists in Thailand make no mistake.

Last year, nearly 40 million tourists visited Thailand, including nearly 23 million to Bangkok alone (according to Mastercard Global Index survey). Thailand had two other cities in the top 20 most visited cities in the world last year. At 8.2 million visitors last year, the Philippines overall would rank just behind the city of Bali Indonesia.

I visited the Philippines once to Davao City and bypassed Manila altogether. I heard there are some pretty bad scammers at the airport especially the taxi drivers. I experienced none of that in Davao, all taxi drivers used the meter, no street beggars, etc.

There are plenty of scammers at the airport in Bali especially the taxi drivers. I got sick of being constantly asked for a taxi in Bali. I never experienced that in other parts of Indonesia. Some areas of Bali is overrated. There are much more nicer regions to go to other than the main tourist areas of Bali.

[teqp]

Originally Posted by herenow1

There are plenty of scammers at the airport in Bali especially the taxi drivers. I got sick of being constantly asked for a taxi in Bali. I never experienced that in other parts of Indonesia. Some areas of Bali is overrated. There are much more nicer regions to go to other than the main tourist areas of Bali.

Yes there are a lot of folks asking if you need a taxi. Reminds me of Bangkok, TBH. We arranged for airport pickup through the hotel. They met us with a sign so it was easy to spot and just walked to the van. It made it a lot easier especially since we had a 2 year old with us. After about 17-18 hours in the air, it's best to pre-arrange for pickup.