Discussion Points and Exercises

1.) Collect information on the visitor attractions in a city of your choice (within Metro-Manila/NCR).
Then compare and contrast this city with Dublin in terms of visitor attractions, noting
differences and similarities.

City of choice: Manila

Similarities:

Manila and Dublin have several similarities when it comes to visitor attractions. These places
both have wide variety of attractions that meets the interest of most tourists. It is comparable in a sense
that it is both a modern city at the same time leaving traces of historical and traditional sites for people
to appreciate. There are newly opened attractions periodically as well as redeveloped ones to follow
with the trends of time.

Differences:

As similar these two modern cities are, they differ in some elements such as the total number of
visitors that come and go to its attractions. Most attractions in Dublin do not seem crowded for most of
the year and some appear to receive relatively few visitors. On the other hand, every attraction in
Manila seem to be crowded the whole year, irrelevant of the season, day and weather. The types of
visitors vary too; In Dublin most attractions appear to have been developed for attracting foreign
tourists while attractions in Manila does not have a specific target of visitors which is evident because its
users are observed to come from different races, including its residents. Many attractions in Dublin carry
quite high entrance charges in contrast to Manila, where most sites are offered free of charge, if not, for
a small amount.

2.) Critically evaluate the portfolio of visitor attractions in Dublin, identifying their strengths and
weaknesses.

Strengths:

Several attractions in Dublin are created and developed with the main motive of attracting
tourists which is made accessible to them to meet their needs, access, interest and budget. There is no
shortage of entertainment such as music performances in cabarets and pubs accompanied with food,
dancing and storytelling. It is observed that Dublin does not only provide exceptional architectures and
building for people to visit but also uses it to provide quality experience for the visitors by collaborating
it with events that is related to the structure.

Weakness:

Dublin is a city which puts great effort in answering the visitor’s demands. However, it is
undeniable that Dublin is not always packed with tourists, so it is also important that it also concentrates
on meeting the needs of its residents. Attractions are not strictly for tourists, so it is important that they
also pay attention to their prime source of users which is the domestic visitors.
 3.) Discover more about the heritage attractions in Dublin. Then, discuss what the attractions
illustrate about the difficulties of presenting heritage to foreign and domestic markets.

There are more than 30 museums and heritage centers in the city of Dublin which can be
categorized as traditional, modern, museum for special interest and dedicated for famous people. The
difficulties of presenting heritage attractions especially to domestic market is that most of the people
who are living in Dublin for their whole lives does not have interest in visiting these places nor do they
have the opportunity to do so. Therefore, its demand among the locals is low in the first place.

For the foreign market, it is relatively easier to promote these heritage attractions but in the case of
Dublin, the number of visitors is few to begin with. It is a key to market these attractions in wide range
to make them known to the whole world and that’s when people will try to access these places. It will
be hard to present these because they are not that visited by many tourists, people tend to visit places
that are trending at the moment.

4.) Using examples, discuss the role of visitor attractions in urban tourism in the USA and EUROPE.

The role of visitor attraction in urban tourism (USA and Europe) is crucial. Visitor attraction provide
livelihood and income to its residences. Some of the examples is that:

 It gives people jobs to provide for their families

 Tourists of attractions provides profit which keeps it going
 It gives the visitors the experience that they are looking for
 It increases the number of domestic tourism

Visitor attractions are important in fast progressing areas such as USA and Europe because it
provides people increased job opportunities, it ideally makes a profit on everything it offers and sells, it
gives every tourists the experience and entertainment that they expect where their satisfaction will
cause them to spread the wonders of the place by word of mouth, starting from close friends and
family.

5.) Select a city with which you are familiar. For your chosen city, devise a plan for new visitor
attractions that will allow it to attract new markets.

Manila’s primary target market at present is pointed among the young generations and foreign
tourists. I believe that the elderly needs a source of entertainment too since there are no notable
attractions that is especially focused toward them.

An opera house that is situated at center of Manila is what I would recommend as a new visitor
attraction for them. It is important that it is easily accessible to them, therefore being situated at where
everything is would attract them to go the attraction.

It would be an attraction that would host various performing arts such as opera, orchestra, dance
and so much more. It will operate from early in the morning to late evening, offered entry for a small
sum of money especially for the elderly. It may seem that the elderly of Manila are not inclined to these
source of entertainment but I believe that similar to the young generation, they also have the interest to
venture new experiences. It just that they are not provided an attraction that is suited for them .