Historic Manila seeks to tempt tourists FEATURE 08/24/2010

Historic Manila seeks to tempt tourists

FEATURE 08/24/2010 MANILA — In the shadows of an ancient cathedral in the Philippine capital, wilting horses attached to carriages shelter from the tropical sun as their drivers try to interest the few tourists milling around. Hawkers exhibit sombreros, fans and rosaries on the pavement nearby but few buyers are in sight — a depressingly familiar scenario for Manila’s historic tourist district centered on the colonial Spanish walled city of Intramuros. Tourists generally skip old Manila in their rush to Boracay and some of the Philippines’ other tropical islands, but the new government of President Benigno Aquino is hoping to entice them to linger a little longer. “Intramuros should be the top tourist attraction in Manila,” Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim, who has been in the post since June, told AFP in a recent interview. “We should build museums, we have so many beautiful artifacts that are sitting in warehouses, it’s almost criminal that they’re going to waste and that they’re deteriorating.” The Southeast Asian archipelago’s cultural history includes three centuries as a Spanish colony that ended in 1898, followed by nearly half a century under US rule.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100824com3.html

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