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Laoag City, Ilocos Norte: GO senatorial candidate
Loren Legarda said the country should take advantage of the
billion-dollar gastronomical tourism phenomenon now sweeping the
world by promoting internationally its various delectable cuisines
and delicacies.
“We can put food on the
table of hungry Filipinos by getting a bigger slice of the earnings
derived from food tourism and the export of our native
delicacies,” Loren said.
“Food can solve the
hunger problem in more ways than one. At the same time, we will be
reinforcing Filipino hospitality for which we are well-known
worldwide,” she said.
Legarda cited a recent survey of
tourist perceptions made by the World Travel Market, which showed
two-thirds of international travelers are somehow influenced by food
and drink in their choice of destinations.
“Food tourism today is
where eco-tourism was 20 years ago, according to this study. Thus,
the Philippines should think of holding culinary festivals and in
exporting more of our delicacies and processed food to tickle
international taste buds,” said Loren.
Loren said foreigners would
find Philippine cooking to be regionally diverse, influenced both by
the east and the west.
“There’s the hot and spicy
cuisine of Bicol, Mindanao’s Malay-influenced offering and Pampanga
and Bulacan’s sweet and sour cookery, to name a few,” she
pointed out. The government can help cooperatives, as well as small
and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), in exporting native delicacies
through micro financing and by holding international food
exhibitions.
The food industry, on its
own and taken with the hotel and resort sectors in the country, can
generate much-needed jobs to help ease poverty and hunger in the
Philippines, said Loren.
She added that food tourism
could go hand in hand with other forms of tourism being promoted in
the Philippines, including historical, ecological and sports
tourism.
Erik Wolf, president of the
International Culinary Tourism Association, has said that 53 percent
of tourists worldwide had ranked eating traditional dishes as a very
important travel consideration.
He added that 83 percent of
tourists typically miss meals in their hotels or resorts to try out
local restaurants.
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