MANILA, Philippines — Despite recording a number of inbound tourists in the country, Forbes Advisor listed Manila as the fifth riskiest city in the world under certain circumstances.
In May, President Ferdinand Marcos said that the Philippines recorded 5.45 million inbound tourists in 2023 alone. This is more than double the 2.65 million visitors recorded in 2022 as per the government data.
But the recent Forbes report showed that Manila has shown to be one of the riskiest cities to travel for tourists across the globe.
In its report released on Wednesday, Forbes said that the city has the most number of natural disasters and also topped in personal security risk as well as health security risk which placed the city in the most risky cities category.
Manila scored 91.49 points in overall risk, according to the report.
Forbes used several travel insurance policies to assess the ranking of the cities, the report noted.
“Manila has the highest natural disaster risk, the fifth highest personal security risk, and the seventh highest health security risk,” the report stated.
Alongside Manila, the top five riskiest cities for tourists include Caracas in Venezuela, Karachi in Pakistan, Yangon in Myanmar, and Lagos in Nigeria.
Singapore earned the top spot as the safest city for tourists, due to its highest travel safety rating, minimal natural disaster risk, and near-lowest health security risk.
In comparison, other safest cities Tokyo, Japan, and Toronto, Canada, has gotten scores of 10.72 and 13.6 points. Meanwhile, Sydney, Australia, and Zurich, Switzerland, received scores of 22.28 and 22.97 points.
Manila has previously been categorized under the “worst” index categories on several studies. In January, among 387 cities spanning 55 countries, Metro Manila claimed the top spot on the 2023 TomTom Traffic Index for having the slowest travel times. On average, it takes 25 minutes and 30 seconds to cover a distance of 10 kilometers in Metro Manila.
