Greetings from Exotic Manila

Exotic greetings from Manila, otherwise known as the American capital of Asia. Its here in the Philippines that the greatest national export is actually people, which is not surprising with their excellent service attitude and work ethic. There are approximately 3 million overseas workers, however thousands of Philippino's are returning home after in their droves after being laid off in the Middle East (especially Dubai), Macao and other parts of the world. The demand from the Cruise Industry is lowering too and once again its becoming a recruiters market. By Government law, each Philppino is required to send home at least 80% of their salary. This ruling, along with Visa processing. Documentation, airport taxes, Certification on necessary training and tax on recruitment / handling agencies helps to drive the national economy. Subsequently the country feels this global recession in different ways to us in the west.

Meanwhile, according to IATA, the Airline Industry is in serious crisis and it does not take an economist to work out why. The world banking crisis is making the risk of a major airline failure more likely because carriers will not be able to access funding for a rescue if they fall into trouble. The situation is so dire that the Director General of IATA."Airlines actually said “we are now in a very weak situation - they (Airlines) have debt of $170 billion so we are in a much worst position - we don't have cash,". It appears that its only a matter of time before another Airline or two goes down.

Changing the focus to the brighter topic of the “Top Ten” Events around the world in April. Hypo Global takes a quick look at the G20 from the perspective of BRIC countries and we have more from La Dolce Vita and Cyprus Events.

Grant Holmes, Editor Perpetual Traveller