Furniture exporters eyeing tourists as target market

While the export market for furniture and home furnishing products is showing positive trend in the recent months, manufacturers are capitalizing on the upbeat tourist-consumers.

In this connection, export leader and owner of Nature's Eximport Inc., Pete Delanar announced to open a showroom in Cebu that will showcase the world-class furniture pieces to multinational tourists visiting Cebu.

The showroom, although conceptualized to meet the increasing demand for export-quality home accents, including fashion accessory products made in Cebu, shall also be opened to the fast expanding local market, Delantar said.

Delantar is one of the few furniture manufacturers in Cebu that is now actively tapping the tourist consumers in order to offset the still recovering global market.

Nature Eximport Inc.'s showroom that will be formally opened in the next few months, will tap the travel operators and tourism players to be included in the list of shopping itineraries of Cebu.

Tourists may also take a glimpse of the company's manufacturing plant, which is just located in the same compound where the showroom will be situated in Mandaue City.

Delantar's concept coincided with the travel operators’ direction in magnifying the experiential tourism packages for Cebu.

Tourists across nationalities, even the domestic travelers are now demanding for much more experiential travels, and action, fun are more important than a mere sight seeing, noted Cebu Association of Travel Operations Specialists (CATOs) president Alice Queblatin.

According to Queblatin, shopping tourism will also be presented in much deeper fashion, wherein tourists will not just feast their eyes on displays but also get to see where the products are being manufactured.

The popularity of DIY (do-it-yourself) concept gave rise to the shift of how tour packages are being presented now. This mostly applies to food products as well as souvenir items.

Most travelers, especially foreigners, usually have a travel itinerary of not less than four days. For first timers, they will not complain with a brief sight-seeing, but for travelers who have been to Cebu more than once, mere sight-seeing could be boring and monotonous activity for them.

Making Cebu a much more exciting destination, even for those who have visited here for countless times, will make Cebu the world's tourism sensation in due time, Queblatin added.

Delantar's company also recently opened a showroom in Japan capitalizing on the fertile renovation market there.