Cebu Marriott to host more food festivals

CEBU, Philippines - Building up its food and beverage business, Cebu City Marriott Hotel gears up to offer more diverse food preparations featuring different countries as it hosts more food festival activities.

At present, the hotel is showcasing the unique food menus of Israel, importing one of the best Chef’s in that country, Zion Barnes.

“We are planning to introduce two more food festivals in the hotel, within this year. This is to stimulate the dining market not only to our guests but also the domestic diners,” said the hotel’s director of sales and marketing Ann Olalo.

The Israeli Food Festival, which opened on the 19th this month, and will end up to August 28, is the third Israeli Food Festival conducted by Marriott since 2001.

“We want to bring back the offering of food from different countries. We also plan to hold Indian and Vietnamese food festivals before the end of this year,” Olalo said.

Although, rooms or accommodations are the largest contributor of the hotel’s overall revenue, food on the other hand comes close.

According to Olalo, with the opening of more restaurants in Cebu, Marriott has to step up and offer the most unique food preparation, such as starting the trend to open up series of food festivals to provide wider options of the dining market.

“It’s a good promotion for Marriott to introduce different food choices, that are unique and authentically prepared,” she said.

This time, with the Israeli Food Festival, Cebu City Marriott Hotel is partnering with the Embassy of Israel to the Philippines, led by   Israel Ambassador to the Philippines Zvi Aviner Vapni, and the recently opened consular office in Cebu.

Aside from providing wider options of food preparation to stimulate the dining market, Olalo said holding different food festivals also support promoting different cultures to the local community.

In an interview with Chef Barnes, he said in the next couple of days, Marriott’s Garden Café Restaurant diners during diner will be treated with special touch of Israeli food preparations from six to seven choices of main courses, and Israeli’s famous appetizers and salads.

According to Olalo, although the Israeli market (as guests) of the hotel, is still few, she said the hotel is starting to tap this potential market.

“That’s [Israeli] the market we want to tap, the problem is the flight accessibility, we don’t have direct flight yet,” Olalo said.

In an earlier interview with Vapni, he said that Cebu is becoming a good partner for Israel, the reason why the Embassy has decided to open up a Consulate office here led by Emily Benedicto-Chioson.

Vapni said part of the thrust of the Embassy and the Consulate office in Cebu is to drum up interest of Filipinos, especially Cebuanos to get closer and familiar with the Israeli culture, and consider the country as one of their target and favorite destinations.

“From such a Christian country, its amazing how little number of Filipinos go to Israel,” the Ambassador said.—Ehda M. Dagooc