Philippines is the third cheapest tourist destination in Southeast Asia

A recent survey conducted by one of the leading financial publications in Asia showed the Philippines as the third cheapest tourist destination in Southeast Asia. The survey was made by FinanceAsia, one of the leading business publications in the region, which utilized Mandarin Oriental’s rack rates as basis for the reader’s outlook.

Ahead of the Philippines in the list at the number one and two slots are Indonesia and Thailand respectively, while Malaysia comes in at fourth after the Philippines. “Despite our readers’ increasingly eccentric voting patterns, Indonesia seems a reasonable choice,” FinanceAsia said in its report.
It also added, “A cursory glance at Mandarin Oriental’s rack rates shows a deluxe room in August costs $345 a night in Bangkok, which would get you a club room in Manila – plus change for a taxi to the airport. In Jakarta, a deluxe room is just $173 (and about the same in Kuala Lumpur which is literally half the price of Bangkok.”
The Economist’s Big Mac Index was another method used in the survey. It uses the price of burgers around the world as a light-hearted measure of relative currency values, and used as a benchmarker for tourists to work out how expensive an unfamiliar country could be.
But the result of this data is the opposite of those in the Mandarin data, which shows Indonesia’s Big Mac costing $2.28, more expensive that either Thailand ($2.16) or Malaysia ($2.12). On the upside, readers stuck in Hong Kong for the summer can take advantage of the second cheapest Big Macs in the world – cheaper even than China.
The report continues, “But anecdotal evidence suggests that it’s lower than in either Thailand or Malaysia.” That makes the Philippines the cheapest place for both burgers and hotel rooms. Also, the report noted that the peso also has the advantage of getting cheaper

http://pinoybusiness.org/2010/07/17/philippines-is-the-third-cheapest-tourist-destination-in-southeast-asia/ 

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