Mexico City  - Whoever follows in the footsteps of Francisco "Pancho" Villa (1878-1923) and Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919) is in for a surprise: discovering the other face of Villa's black legend and understanding how the two revolutionaries of 1910 can still live on so long after their deaths.

The tourist will find wartime love stories and victorious troops who beg rather than loot, and see Villa, "The Centaur of the North," forcefully recruit 350 children not to make them fight, but to make them go to school.

Among its cultural tours, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) offers one which not only follows the activities of the two revolutionaries, but also looks at their personalities and ideologies.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang Thursday appealed to Beijing to allow more tourists from mainland China into the former British colony to help revive its flagging economy.

Tsang made the appeal at a meting with the chairman of the national Tourism Administration, Shao Qiwei, during a three-day duty visit to the Chinese capital.

The Hong Kong leader said a combination of the global financial crisis and the introduction of direct flights between China and Taiwan, which means that Chinese visitors to Taiwan no longer need to transit via Hong Kong, had affected tourism.

Tsang told Shao a further relaxation in the regulations on mainland visitors to visit Hong Kong would compensate for the recent drop in tourist arrivals.

Phuket, Thailand - Now is the time for a cheap holiday in Phuket, Thailand's leading beach resort.

Tourism is the number one industry on Phuket, swelling the island's 350,000 official population to more than 5 million each year. More than 48 per cent of these tourists come from Europe.

There was apprehension on the island in November that numbers would drop as a result of the world economic crisis, but future bookings looked good until anti-government protestors in Bangkok closed the two international airports from November 26 to December 3.

Puerto Viejo de Carapiqui, Costa Rica  - A world leader in ecotourism, Costa Rica is a country that promotes nature conservation instead of the ruthless exploitation of natural resources, and wildlife-watching instead of competitive drinking at the side of hotel pools.

The Central American nation is considered a role model in this respect, and its many natural treasures - including crater lakes, smoking and dormant volcanoes, Pacific and Caribbean beaches, and rain forests with howler monkeys, toucans and sloths - attract more and more tourists every year.

Myawaddy, Myanmar  - Go to those places where poor countries meet rich and you will find hope. The poor towns may be unpolished, but there is a nervous energy and relentless hope. These towns have plans.

Yet, there's nothing like this in Myawaddy, Myanmar, the poor town opposite Mae Sot, Thailand.

The towns lie across the Moei River, a sluggish brown border snaking between two of the most disparate countries in Asia. On the one side lies Thailand characterized by prosperity, modernity and openness. Then there is Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, a notoriously corrupt, hermetic and violent country.

Antananarivo, Madagascar - As delegates from 45 countries met in Nairobi to discuss a coordinated front against Somali piracy, the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar further south was preparing for the opening of a museum that documents the history of piracy on the high-seas under the skull and crossbones flag.

A Swiss national has founded the Pirates' Museum in Antananarivo, capital of Madagascar, the world's fourth-largest island and a favourite former ambush point for ships travelling between Africa and Asia.

The museum explores more than 300 years of the swashbuckling history of piracy, focusing on the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.