The Department of Tourism (DOT) invites foodies to embark on “Food Trips” with the second leg of its virtual KAIN NA! Food and Travel Festival 2020 from November 3 to 6, 2020.
“Food has always been one of the Filipinos’ travel motivations. And as we slowly but surely reopen more and more tourist destinations, let us keep our appetite for ‘food trips’ with the exciting online offerings of KAIN NA! 2020,” DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said.
The four-day culinary virtual festival will start with the “PROSPECTives” for Food and Gastronomy Tourism — a discussion on the global perspectives and way forward by Ms. Sandra Carvao, Chief of Tourism Market Intelligence and Competitiveness at the UN World Tourism Organization; Mr. Erik Wolf, Executive Director and Founder of the World Food Travel Association; Mr. Mongkon Wimonrat, Assistant to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand and Dr. Jutamas (Jan) Wisansing, Managing Director of Perfect Link Consulting Group Company Limited as representatives of the working group on Food and Gastronomy Tourism in the ASEAN Region.
The Food Tourism Exchange will serve virtual tours and food demos from the country’s major island groups from Luzon’s Metro Yummy Picks in NCR, Kulinarya Tagala of CALABARZON, Pamanang Kaluto Noon at Ngayon of Bulacan, and Food Trips of Bicol; to Visayas’ Secret Kitchens of Samar, Foodie Side of Bohol, and Culinary Finds of Capiz; and Mindanao’s Food Tripping in Northern Mindanao, Flavors of SOX, and Southern Comfort Food of ZamPen.
This will be followed by fun and motivational TED Talks-inspired sessions for the Food Tourism 101 starting with the Tricycle Food Tours of Chef Melissa Sison-Oreta, Discovering Philippine Culture and Cuisine through the Regions with Chef Angelo Comsti, Food Tourism Online by Chef Tatung Sarthou, Traveling Off the Eaten Path with Aashi Vel of Traveling Spoon, and Cultural Food Mapping & Experiences with Clang Garcia.
Joining the second leg are the partner chefs of Unilever Food Solutions through their initiative called Traveling Through Food. The featured food gurus, namely, Chefs Gerry Austria, Pam Aragoza, and Miko Dy from Luzon, Chefs Ramon Antonio and Menoy Gimenez from Visayas, and Chef Pauline Benedicto-Malilin and Jan Uy from Mindanao will be giving cooking demonstrations and talks about reviving tourism through food, exploring authentic food experiences, and the evolution of their operations during the quarantine.
The e-commerce training courses of CTRL+BIZ Reboot Food Tourism Now will put focus on how the online marketplace can be maximized by tourism stakeholders, the health and safety guidelines on the operations of travel and tour agencies and tour guides, and the introduction the new DOT Online Accreditation System. Viber will elaborate on the role of messaging platforms to enable micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to expand operations and Facebook will conduct a crash course on how to build effective Facebook ad creatives, while success stories of businesses that have crossed over from offline to online will also be discussed.
“Our KAIN NA! Trading Post at kainnastore.com, which is the online store substitute of our on-ground expo launched last September has welcomed over 4,000 visitors,” Puyat shared.
The virtual festival was launched last September in partnership with Ayala Malls and bannered the country’s finest Tsokolate, Kape, and Tsaa.
