DAVAO CITY—The tourism sector here would be awaiting the arrival and subsequent exploration by Malaysian halal- food businessmen here as they join the first batch of travellers on the direct Davao City-Kuala Lumpur flight on December 21.
Zuhairah A. Abas, chief tourism operations officer at the regional tourism office here, said businessmen from three food establishments and food-supply businesses in Malaysia have booked flights on the first direct route here from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
The first direct flight to Kuala Lumpur from here was publicly announced months ago here by Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandez, Air Asia CEO. The regional Department of Tourism (DOT) here also confirmed his presence at the inaugural flight.
Abas said the Malaysian businesses were already informed of the problem in Davao City, “notably in the halal restaurants, where even we, Filipino Muslims, have a difficult time to find halal food to eat.”
She said Davao City and the rest of Mindanao have been putting efforts at being at least “halal-compliant,” the way other non-Muslim countries in Asia have been doing. She said Singapore has been one of the favorite travel destinations of Malaysian Muslim travelers, along with Malaysia itself.
She gathered this information when she was attached as a tourism personnel at the Philippine Embassy in Malaysia. She said Malaysian travelers know the Philippines is a Catholic country, hence, “they expect to find halal establishments difficult and would rather go to other destinations.”
The lack of direct flight was another hindrance to attract Malaysian travelers, she said.
“Countries like Thailand and South Korea have become halal compliant and have become part of the choices to travel among Muslim tourists,” she said. “Even Japan has worked on halal compliance, too.”
She said the direct Davao City-Kuala Lumpur flight would be a good opening for tourism for the Davao region. The DOT has begun to package Mindanao in this new direct flight “knowing that a lot of people from Mindanao, especially the Muslim businesses, would really find this connection helpful and convenient.”