Airport Woes - Money Exchange & Tourist Maps

You will know if a country is tourist friendly or not based on the services it provides in its airports, and from my experience, Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport is very tourist friendly. One indicator of a tourist freindly airport is the availability of money exchange centers. Money exchange centers abound at the Bangkok airport. The money exchange centers sell and buy notes in different denominations - US dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro and even Philippine Peso. I usually exchange my dollar, yen or peso to baht when I arrive at Bangkok and then exchange my unused baht money to peso or dollar.

Another indicator of a tourist friendly airport is the availability of tourist maps to guide the visitors during their stay in the country. In Bangkok, I was able to get four different types of tourist maps. Imagine that! - 4 maps in one airport - all free!

The Philippines, if it is really serious in promoting tourism should provide similar services at the international airports. It should ask the support of private institutions and companies to improve the services at the airport. Why doesn't NAIA request a bank to set-up a money exchange in the airport? As for the tourist maps, this can easily be funded through advertisements that can be printed in the maps - similar to the Bangkok tourist maps. I know there are WOW Philippines maps printed by the Department of Tourism - so why not distribute them at our airports (for free, that is).