Foreign tourist arrivals are certain to slow down in the face of the negative travel advisories issued by the US, Canada and the United Kingdom on the Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte took the warning seriously after the three countries warned their citizens against traveling to Palawan amid “credible information” that groups were planning to kidnap foreign nationals there. The President conceded that the Philippines had a problem with terrorism, citing the arrival of the dreaded terror group ISIS in the country.
The ISIS and the bandit group Abu Sayyaf have planned to conduct kidnapping operations targeting foreign nationals in popular exotic places like Bohol and Palawan islands. The police earlier foiled an attempt by Abu Sayyaf bandits in Bohol to kidnap tourists, just as the Philippines was holding a summit meeting of the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The two terror groups obviously want to stage their hideous kidnaping operations and sow terror in popular tourist spots to raise ransom money in the case of the Abu Sayyaf, and score a propaganda point in the case of ISIS.
The US Embassy identified Palawan’s capital city of Puerto Princesa and the nearby underground river that lures thousands of visitors daily as areas the kidnappers were targeting. Foreign tourists who have been flocking to Palawan could be easy prey to these terror groups.
The police, as in other popular cities like Tokyo and Seoul in Asia and London and Paris in Europe, should expand their presence in local tourist spots to deter terror groups and other criminal elements from harming travelers and inflicting damage on Philippine tourism. Their presence should be a permanent fixture round-the-clock along the popular beaches of Palawan, Bohol and Boracay islands and other famous tourist destinations.
Philippine tourism suffers when foreign countries issue a travel warning against their citizens. The Philippines also loses many economic opportunities from such adverse travel advisories, including jobs created by a single foreign tourist arriving here.