New Halal section at Manila Marriott Hotel
MANILA Marriott Hotel has become the first hotel in the Philippines to achieve a certification from CrescentRating, a leading authority on halal-friendly travel.
The property achieved a rating of five – the highest possible rating being seven – for its services and facilities that cater to a Muslim clientele, such as a halal food section at its F&B outlet Marriott Café.
Granting hotels in the Philippines a CrescentRating is part of a recent initiative by The Philippine Department of Tourism (PDoT) to diversify its visitor arrivals by attracting Muslim visitors from neighbouring South-east Asia and the Middle East.
The PDoT has also partnered with CrescentRating on a series of activities to increase the awareness of the availability of halal food and mosques in the Philippines.
“Our Philippine Halal Tourism project has broken real ground and set very realistic targets to begin the important work of making halal a real industry in the Philippines,” said tourism secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr.
“It is important because it is a given in the Filipino culture that our best and most important welcome to any visitor is with food. And if we are not halal, there is a segment of society in the world that we are not extending a proper welcome to.”
Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of CrescentRating said that more hotels in the Philippines will soon get halal certified by them.
According to the MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2016 report, the Muslim travel market is recognised as a key growth tourism sector projected to be worth more than US$200 billion by 2020.
The Philippines currently ranks 46th on the GMTI list.
