Manila Zoo Is the Philippines' Most Boring Tourist Attraction, Report Says
If you went to school in Metro Manila in the '90s, chances are that one of the stops on your field trip is the Manila Zoo. Once a bustling hub of excitement and education, it has been recently labeled as one of the "most boring tourist attractions in the world," according to a new study. The same survey lists Manila Zoo as the most boring tourist attraction in the Philippines.
How the 'Most Boring Tourist Attractions in the World' Were Identified
The study was conducted by Solitaired, an online platform where you can play a game of—well, solitaire. One can easily associate boredom with solitaire. It is, after all, one of the very few games that you can play on the computer in the early days of Windows. It's up there with Minesweeper, which only a few ever only understood.
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For this study that came out on April 8, 2024, Solitaired has identified the 100 most boring tourist attractions in the world based on a March 2024 analysis of 66.7 million Google reviews from over 3,200 popular tourist spots across 384 cities in 71 countries. It ranked these attractions by the frequency of boredom-related keywords found in the reviews. Words like "boring," "bored," "bore," "boredom," "tiresome," "dull," "drab," "lackluster," "lifeless," "mediocre," and "tedious" were tallied to create a "boredom score" for each location. The methodology also ensured that the focus on keywords are in a negative context by using natural language processing (NLP) and keyword-in-context (KWIC) analysis. Surprisingly, the United States dominated the list, with the top seven most boring attractions all located within its borders.
Topping the list is the Branson Scenic Railway in Branson, Missouri. This attraction offers a 40-mile round trip through part of the Ozark Mountains. Despite the promise of scenic views, reviewers were largely unimpressed, citing that the journey quickly became monotonous, offering little more than repetitive treetop views.
How Manila Zoo Fared in the List of Boring Tourist Attractions
Solitaired's study also gave a per-country selection. Type in "Philippines," and data reveals Manila Zoo as the country's most boring tourist attraction, with a boredom score of 1.50 in a range of zero to five. This information is culled from 5,091 reviews.
Manila Zoo (formerly Manila Zoological and Botanical Garden) has been around since July 25, 1959, during the term of Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson. Its main attraction was the enclosure of Manila, a female Asian elephant given as a gift by the Sri Lankan government to former First Lady Imelda Marcos in 1981. Mali was just 11 months old then. Her solitary existence since the death of another elephant, Shiva, in 1990, raised concerns among animal rights advocates who argued that her living conditions were inadequate.
The plight of Mali caught the attention of several high-profile figures who advocated for her transfer to an elephant sanctuary. Despite these appeals, zoo authorities maintained that Mali was best kept in captivity, contending that she had never known life in the wild and might not survive a transition. Mali died on November 28, 2023, after more than four decades in captivity.
Aside from the alleged poor treatment of Mali, Manila Zoo was under fire on several other occasions. One was in the 2000s as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called for the closure of zoos around the world; then in 2019, when it temporarily stopped its operations after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources found that it was dumping untreated sewage into Manila Bay. A P1.7-billion rehabilitation started in July 2020, then it was reopened to the public on December 30, 2021.
The renovated facility now features modernized enclosures with transparent glass, elevated viewing decks and pathways surrounded by plants, a dancing fountain, and even mini-falls and a manmade lagoon.
Flora and fauna are also separated into larger spaces, including the Animal Museum, Botanical Garden, Butterfly Garden, and Endemic Animals. Additional amenities include spacious restrooms, more food stalls, drinking fountains, parking areas, and benches. It is also noted that the new Manila Zoo has its own sewage treatment plant.
Despite these improvements, reviews on TripAdvisor reflected opposite sentiments (likely from pre-renovation visits to the zoo). Many users expressed disappointment over the zoo's state. One user mentioned that the enclosures seemed too small for the animals, while another pointed out that the facilities appeared to be poorly maintained.
