Tour packages for visitors to PH Entertainment City urged

Local governments and businessmen in western Metro Manila cities surrounding Entertainment City should develop tourism packages for foreigners expected to flock to the future gaming and entertainment complex, according to a travel agencies’ association executive.

“The Entertainment City will be Metro Manila’s new tourism magnet and we can offer foreigners going there other things to do such as tours showcasing the Filipino culture,” Network of Independent Travel Agencies president Robert Lim Joseph told the Inquirer in a recent interview.

Entertainment City, a project of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., is envisioned to be a Las Vegas-like gaming and entertainment complex on an 8-square-kilometer land reclaimed from Manila Bay.

Establishments such as Belle Grande, Manila Bay Resorts, Solaire Manila and Resorts World Bayshore are expected to be fully operational from 2014 to 2016.

Joseph, also the honorary consul general of the Baltic state of Latvia, said there would be plenty of opportunities for tour operators and tourist-related services surrounding the complex. Tour packages could be made specific since visitors going to Entertainment City would be bringing their families along or arriving in groups such as club members, employees and senior citizens.

Some local government units in Metro Manila have started to realize the potential of Entertainment City for tourism, including the Parañaque City government, which is planning to move to Entertainment City its 130-year-old “Sunduan Festival,” a pageant featuring the Spanish era courtship and sweethearts’ promenade.

Joseph said that national and local governments, in line with the Department of Tourism’s “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” slogan, should sponsor presentations and other activities inside Entertainment City to highlight the uniqueness of Filipino culture and spur tourists to go out and explore the surrounding cities.

He pushed for more government subsidies for the world-renowned Bayanihan dance troupe so that it could perform in the various hotels and resorts within Entertainment City.