It’s more fun in the Philippines

You’d think tourists would be a timorous crowd, that they’d go only where they think it’s safe to go. Not where it’s safe, but where they think it is. That should mean a windfall for the Philippines, as Thailand-heading vacationers think twice, for example.

But the statistics don’t seem to say so. Tourist arrivals in the Philippines reached 4.68 million last year — a mere 10% increase from 4.27 million in 2012. Meanwhile, Thailand’s visitors in 2013 increased by 20%, or 4.4 million, to 26.7 million from 22.3 million in 2012. Thailand’s increase equalled the Philippines’ total! And the tourists were probably right: The reality of Thailand is that the demonstrations were in Bangkok only, and only a part of Bangkok at that. Elsewhere, life went on as usual.