MANILA: The Philippines wants to promote halal cuisine from Mindanao and put the island on the global culinary map, a tourism official said on Monday as efforts are underway to attract more Muslim travelers from around the globe to the region.
Tourism is a key sector of the economy for the Philippines, an archipelagic country known for its white sand beaches and beautiful diving spots, with the sector contributing nearly 13 percent, or about $44 billion, of the country’s gross domestic product in 2019.
After the global travel industry ground to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Manila expanded its tourism goals to revive the sector and began to position itself as a Muslim-friendly destination.
“We are promoting Filipino halal food, specifically Muslim Mindanao food, because we want more people to go to Mindanao,” Myra Paz Abubakar, the Department of Tourism undersecretary for Muslim affairs, told Arab News on Monday.
The southern island of Mindanao is…