Foreign mortuary execs to join 1st Funeral Tour

About 50 foreign funeral directors and professionals are expected to join the first Funeral Professional Educational Tour (FPET) next year in May, aimed to boost the Philippine mortuary industry.

Participants from United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Britain will be touring to the different funeral houses and cementery, memorial parks in the Philippines, highlighting the "Hanging Coffin" attraction in Baguio City

To be organized by the Pacific Center for Advanced Studies (PCAS), the tour is expected to drum up awareness of developing mortuary industry in the Philippines to the other countries, and showcasing the presence of internationally, at par, mortuary and funeral care skills training center.

PCAS president Sarah Dychangco said the 10-day funeral educational tour could also lead to the development of series of tourism tours that will highlight the unique Filipino Funeral Culture.

"This will not only benefit the industry itself, but this program is also geared at developing other tourism attraction for the Philippines," Dychangco said in an interview.

PCAS is the first internationally-accredited mortuary and funeral care skills training center in the Philippines. It is the training center arm of the Cosmopolitan Memorial Chapels. To date, the school has not only attracted locals, but also foreign students.

Significantly, Dychangco said aside from boosting tourism in the funeral and mortuary industry in the Philippines, the main reason of the tour is to orient foreign funeral care professionals to the Philippine culture, so that they will be able to take care of Filipinos who need their help in their respective countries.

"There is a growing number of Filipinos working or migrating in these countries, funeral care professionals in these countries should be able to know the funeral culture of the Philippines," Dychangco said.

Being the largest player in mortuary industry in the Philippines, Dychanco's Group of companies including its manufacturing plant for coffin, casket interiors and embalming chemicals are now starting to hit the international market.

Its Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes' chain will also be opening its first international branch soon in Vietnam.