Culinary/farm travel exchange held
Farm sellers, culinary tourism experts, travel executives and foreign buyers participated in the Culinary Tourism Travel Exchange held during the recent Madrid Fusion Manila 2017.
This was in response to the increasing attention on the Philippines as a center of food and gastronomy and intends to aggressively promote culinary tours to the country.
Officer-in-charge Zeny Pallugna of the Department of Tourism office in New York said, “This culinary travel exchange and farm tourism are so apt for the American mainstream market because their travels are always associated with food. From the gastronomic offerings of the Philippines, we can easily repackage our tourism products.”
Culinary and farm tours can be customized into the itinerary, particularly for luxury travelers. These tourists,
who usually travel in small groups, belong to the senior market.
As differentiated from mass tourists, luxury tourists devise their itinerary based on the destination’s distinct attractions and the property’s amenities. Their only complaint about being in the Philippines is being served too much good food.
Cebu and Bohol were included in a round-the-world tour for 16 senior travelers who spent over $129,000 each.
Another recent example is the group of 130 scuba divers who visited Manila, Corregidor, Tagaytay, Cebu and Boracay. Their tour included a cooking demonstration of native dishes and a lecture by a marine biologist on the propagation of coral reefs. Each spent $9,800 with emphasis on fine dining. Responsible, sustainable and inclusive tourism is on the American traveler’s mind. A niche market for travelers is called “giving back” or voluntourism. Students and professionals travel to overseas destinations with the intention of immersing and doing volunteer work in a community and then proceeding to a tourist destination for relaxation.
The two B2B sessions of the Culinary Tourism Travel Exchange had 35 local sellers of culinary tourism destinations, farms and culinary travel sites or properties with 13 Metro Manila-based tour operators and 25 international travel agents from Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Middle East and the US as buyers participating.