Halal Restaurants in the Philippines: a Step Towards Halal Tourism
Chapter 1 – INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
The key selling point of the Philippines as a tourist destination has always been focused on its people who are known for their warm hospitality and the large number of pristine beaches that dot the country. Despite these unique features, the Philippines still lags behind our ASEAN neighbors as far as international tourist arrivals are concerned. For the year 2012, visitor arrivals to the Philippines gave a total of four million two hundred seventy two thousand eight hundred eleven (4,272,811) (Visitor Arrivals to the Philippines by Country of Residence January-December 2012” 2013). The afore-mentioned figure suffers in comparison to visitor arrivals in 2012 for Vietnam (6.8 million), Indonesia (8.0 million), Thailand (22.3 million) and Malaysia (25.0 million) (UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2013).
There is also an increasing concern that the image of the country is tarnished by different events made aware in the international community such as:
-A recent poll of Hong Kong residents wherein they voted the Philippines as the number one hated country in the world (Ribaya, 2013). Although the poll tried to stay away from political issues and, instead concentrate on the countries as a destination, people in Hong Kong still cannot erase from their memories the image of the hostage taking event which happened in 2010 in Manila wherein eight (08) Hong Kong tourists were killed.
-The sanctions imposed by Taiwan which includes a red light travel alert to the Philippines, stopping all economic, agricultural and technological exchanges and freezing applications for work permits to Filipino workers. This was brought about by the yet unresolved incident involving the death of a Taiwanese fisherman who was shot by Philippine Coast Guard personnel in overlapping waters of the two countries. *Taiwan has recently lifted the sanctions against the Philippines (Agence France-Presse 2013) but the Philippines has still to wait
Background of the study
The key selling point of the Philippines as a tourist destination has always been focused on its people who are known for their warm hospitality and the large number of pristine beaches that dot the country. Despite these unique features, the Philippines still lags behind our ASEAN neighbors as far as international tourist arrivals are concerned. For the year 2012, visitor arrivals to the Philippines gave a total of four million two hundred seventy two thousand eight hundred eleven (4,272,811) (Visitor Arrivals to the Philippines by Country of Residence January-December 2012” 2013). The afore-mentioned figure suffers in comparison to visitor arrivals in 2012 for Vietnam (6.8 million), Indonesia (8.0 million), Thailand (22.3 million) and Malaysia (25.0 million) (UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2013).
There is also an increasing concern that the image of the country is tarnished by different events made aware in the international community such as:
-A recent poll of Hong Kong residents wherein they voted the Philippines as the number one hated country in the world (Ribaya, 2013). Although the poll tried to stay away from political issues and, instead concentrate on the countries as a destination, people in Hong Kong still cannot erase from their memories the image of the hostage taking event which happened in 2010 in Manila wherein eight (08) Hong Kong tourists were killed.
-The sanctions imposed by Taiwan which includes a red light travel alert to the Philippines, stopping all economic, agricultural and technological exchanges and freezing applications for work permits to Filipino workers. This was brought about by the yet unresolved incident involving the death of a Taiwanese fisherman who was shot by Philippine Coast Guard personnel in overlapping waters of the two countries. *Taiwan has recently lifted the sanctions against the Philippines (Agence France-Presse 2013) but the Philippines has still to wait