Two foreign tour operators which participated in the recently concluded 4th Annual Philippine Halal Trade and Tourism Expo in Abreeza mall are trying to attract the Muslim market of Mindanao to travel to Brunei Darussalam, Surabaya and Jakarta in Indonesia and Lebanon for Islamic experiences.
Representatives of Aneka Kartika Travel and Tours and Rida International Travel and Tourism expressed confidence they can tap the Mindanao market for religious tours.
“There’s no better event than Halal. We are hoping to get some interest from Muslim community in Mindanao. We’ve been already approached by some Muslim travel agents who are interested,” said Vernon Prieto of Aneka Kartika Travel and Tours based in Surabaya, Indonesia.
During the expo, Prieto decorated Aneka Kartika’s booth with pictures of the Wali Sanga, the revered saints of Islam in Indonesia. The word “wali” is Arabic for the “trusted one” or “friend of God” while the “sanga” is the Javanese for the number nine.
“Each of every one of the saints are either in East Java, Central Java, and West Java. We have three different packages with different variations. The complete package will allow you to visit the tombs of the nine walis, from Surabaya all the way to Jakarta and that’s about eight days. The longest is eight days because the packages allows you to spend the day in Jakarta. Otherwise you get the seven days and just skip Jakarta. Everything will start in Surabaya,” Prieto said.
He said they also have the seven walis (seven saints) package that would be from Surabaya back to Surabaya. He said for this offering they have partnered with Royal Brunei airlines which came up with a very good rate for their flights.
“It’s not only Indonesia because you got to spend the whole day in Brunei for Islamic culture. So you will be able to see the mosques, floating village, and Regalia. It’s like 2-in-1 for two countries,” he said.
Prieto said this offering is open to everybody interested in Muslim and Javanese cultures in particular because the nine saints are icons of Java especially for the Muslim community.
“Its very popular among Malaysians. There are a lot of Halal certified hotels in international standards. Some of the towns have the best hotels and the standards are good. The meals are all Halal and we don’t bring them (tourists) to a Chinese restaurant even if it is Halal because we want them to have a Javanese experience,” he said.
Prieto said Halal expo is a good venue to introduce the Islamic experiences because there is a market in Mindanao. He said they were invited by the Consulate of Indonesia in Davao because they are optimistic they could provide Islamic service and products.
We have the Muslim community here in Mindanao and we have events like Halal expo which is exposing this type of tourism to the local community here. And we are very excited because we’ve been working on this for a while. Right now the packages are available for this three-day tour in travel agents in Davao only and starting Monday this package will be available nationwide,” he said.
On her end, Graciel Anjelin G. Erazo, sales manager of Rida International Travel and Tourism said they have included pilgrimage destinations in Lebanon after Pope Francis announced that some of the Christians are in Lebanon. She said they are targeting tourists from Mindanao to experience the pilgrimage tour.
She said the top three destinations to visit in Lebanon are the site of the Virgin Mary of Lebanon, the cedar trees that are found only in Lebanon, and the vineyards as Lebanon wines are very popular.
“We don’t have churches but cathedrals. Some are really scared to visit Lebanon but the war in Lebanon had ended 20 years ago and today Lebanon is super safe already. Ang mga tao sa Lebanon they speak French. We have 40 groups already visited Lebanon and all were Filipino-Chinese,” she said.
Erazo said she had been talking to Davao travel agents already and introduced Lebanon group packages.
Rida International Travel and Tourism is a company with head office in Beirut and main offices in United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Morocco, Thailand, Jordan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Philippines. It has more than 400 multilingual professionals in its offices and overseas representatives worldwide, including Russia, Spain, Ukraine, China, Vietnam, South Korea, India, Brazil and Latin America.
“We’re targeting Davao lately and we are planning to set up a sales visit here. It’s a good opportunity for us to be in the market,” she said.
