Comments on: Big Trouble for Tourists?

By: Mindanao Bob

Mindanao Bob — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:28:21 +0000

Hi Mike – Yeah, no doubt, the powers that these police would have would need to be worked out. Perhaps a series of tests, to decide what works best. From what I saw in Thailand, they seem to have a system that works well for all involved.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:33:00 +0000

Very interesting concept, Bob! When I return to Davao, I’ll have to tell you a story which occurred during my last time there, which illustrates the value of this idea.

I think that a Foreign Liaison Officer would be a very good addition to most major centres, yet, would prefer to see limited powers for that role. I would be concerned if such a person had too much “swing” or was carrying a gun. Hong Kong, as you know, had caucasian & Chinese police officers & that was a great benefit. Most Western countries have Liaison Officers within various police organizations, whom are, sometimes, shown greater respect by their ethnic community than those of other ethnicities. Still, as pointed out, it might be a hard sell to Filipinos. Perhaps, you could solicit the opinion of Filipinos/as on this idea?
Mike

By: Mindanao Bob

Mindanao Bob — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:31:20 +0000

Hi Boss – Good to hear from you! Yeah, when it comes to tourists, the Philippines is currently not even in the same league with Thailand. They need to start small with some programs to get a few tourists coming this way, and build on it. We’ll see if they can make it happen.

By: Boss

Boss — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:17:17 +0000

Hi Sir BoB. I just came back from Thailand – again. I used my return ticket to go back and enjoy the best pizza in the world in Bangkok.
Your idea on the Tourist Police is a very good one. I saw the Tourist police being very busy in Pattaya and Phuket. Mostly drunk young British guys going well over their booze limit.
Two things, the numbers of tourists in Thailand are huge. There were wall to wall tourists of every nationality in the streets and that was LOW season. Now is the beginning of the high season.

If there are any tourist numbers in the Pines they are scattered all over the islands. When I came back to Manila it was like a ghost town, where are the tourists? Makati was DEAD, Los Angeles was DEVOID of life and Malate well I think i was the only one there. The tourists I saw in Makati looked bored sh*tless anyway.

Me, personally the Pines has a long way to go before it can be called a Tourist destination. As one travel agency once said to me, the Pines is not a tourist destination of choice. After my two trips to Thailand, I could not agree more.
Maybe in Davao there are more “tourists” in one location, there could be a trial for TP in Davao? I think your idea is a good one, but really the numbers of foreigners in any one place don’t warrant it.
Oh yeah I forgot to mention one very important point, most of the Thai people “don’t” speak English, I met 5 Thais that could in 5 weeks, the Pino can speak English.

By: Mindanao Bob

Mindanao Bob — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:44:05 +0000

Hi dave – I, personally, will be very surprised if tourism ever really takes off here in the Philippines.

I published the article here on LiP (which I know is read by people in power in Davao), and I also put it in my column in the local newspaper. We’ll see if there is any reaction.

By: dave(dewag)

dave(dewag) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:56:20 +0000

Hi Bob
I have to agree with you I believe this would be a very big step forward for the philippines,if as i suspect the philippines is going to explode on the tourist scene in the next few years i believe they will have to implement something similar. I might be wrong but i think the original concept was first performed for international football(soccer) matches and involved full time police officers it was then used in the spannish holiday resorts to combat the drunken behaviour of tourists, it is now proving to be of use in thailand. the plus side of this is these guys can help where language barrier’s become a problem and rightly as you say where culture differences become a problem also. I dont know if you know your local Mayor there but my advice is have a chat with him about it if he is anything like the Mayor of San Carlos City,Negros he will be very enthusiastic about such an idea being made by an expat the good thing for you is you can direct him th watch the tv series and he can see for himself the results.

By: Mindanao Bob

Mindanao Bob — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:36:25 +0000

Hi Gary – Thanks for stopping by. Under the Thai model, the tourist police foreigners would not deal with locals, only try to assist the foreigners by keeping them from causing problems. They are not an information bureau at all, they have powers similar to the regular police.

Take care.

By: Gary Covington

Gary Covington — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:58:37 +0000

Bad idea.

In the years I’ve lived here I’ve come to realise that any foreigner involvement in local issues – unless the foreigner is giving away free gifts – is regarded as an insult.

I’ve not seen the TV show you mention but I imagine an awful lot of the tourists involved get themselves into trouble through their own stupidity and gullibility.As they say,there’s one born every minute.(Gullibility – is that a word ?)

As one of your other commentators mentions,a lot of countries have tourist police but they tend to be information bureaux on legs.Like the English Bobby in those far off days.

Keep scribbling,Gary Covington.

By: Mindanao Bob

Mindanao Bob — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:41:57 +0000

Hi Danny – Airports would indeed be a good place to start. But… start only.

By: Danny

Danny — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:26:13 +0000

Kamusta ka Bob,

I think it would be a great idea, especially at the major airports. I haven’t seen this show, or had a chance to watch the video on here, but I would guess the major cities should have this type of program set up….would be beneficial in many ways.

Thumbs up..now just have to take care of those leftist people!!..lol.

Take care all,
Danny