MANILA — How safe is HelloSafe? “Utterly unsafe!”
This was the reaction of the Philippines sports tourism stakeholders and communities when asked to comment on HelloSafe’s pronouncement, listing the Philippines as one of the three least safest countries in 2024.
“Obviously, HelloSafe’s methodology and criteria to assess countries are ironically, unsafe, to say the least,” this was how Charles Lim, president and CEO of Sports Turismo Alliance, Inc. bluntly put it.
According to Lim, the Philippines has been hosting mega sports events during the last three or four years which falls under the audit period of HelloSafe, a global insurance company, and his group has not found any alarming incident involving thousands of athletes and hundreds of thousands of fans from far and near.
“We hosted the FIBA (Basketball) World Cup in 2023; a series of eight international races with the IRONMAN Group in 2024 and later this year, the Philippines is hosting the Men’s Volleyball World Championship as well as the FIFA Women’s Futsal World Cup,” revealed Lim.
He emphasized that world sports organizations such as the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), Federation Iinternationale de Basketball (FIBA) and Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) have taken into account safety as a strong criteria in hosting of sports. These international sports bodies have made their assessments, which is stricter and beyond the realms of HelloSafe, and they find the Philippines extremely safe to hold these games.
“Unless HelloSafe has a reason to challenge the findings of these strong global sports associations, we should ignore the falsehood of the HelloSafe listing. Before any bid for hosting is considered, safety of athletes and visitors is considered a high criteria,” added Lim.
Earlier, Tourism Secretary, Cristina G Frasco demanded HelloSafe to remove the June 20, 2025 global travel safety warning which declared Philippines together with Columbia and Mexico as the least safest countries to visit. In a statement of July 15, 2025, HelloSafe apologized for their mistakes but tourism officials regret that the “damage” has been done due to warrantless and irresponsible postings.
Sport Turismo Alliance, Inc is a non-stock, nonprofit organization supporting tourism bodies and sports communities throughout the Philippines, It is a member of the International Association of Event Hosts, a global organization based in London, promoting sports, cultural and heritage events.
It also hosts the Philippine Sports Tourism Awards annually, now entering its seventh year, recognizing local governments, sports associations, event organizers, hotels. resorts, airlines, tour operators, sports venues, corporate sponsors, destination marketing outfits, sports foundations, amongst others for developing and hosting sports events as a contributor to the tourism industry. Press release
