The Philippines’ Rajah Travel has launched The Knowledge Center (TKC), with the aim of turning the facility into a top-of-the-mind source of information on travel and tourism in the Philippines and also South-east Asia.
Executive director, Rolando Canizal – who was former tourism undersecretary – explained that “more than a travel agency, Rajah Travel is a corporation that recognises the information needs of policymakers, programme managers and tourism professionals, among others”.
TKC held the maiden edition of its Travel Talk Series on the timely issue of balancing economic and conservation objectives towards sustainable tourism before an audience of over 250 tourism students, professors and industry members at the Lyceum of the Philippines University.
Subsequent editions of this interactive forum that uses live streaming to expand its reach will be held in June at Our Lady of Fatima University and in September at San Beda College.
Also unveiled at TKC’s launch was the Intramuros microsite www.visitfortsantiago.com.
Apart from Fort Santiago, the microsite also links to other Intramuros attractions like Casa Manila, Baluarte de San Diego, etc, making it easier for tourists to plan their trips and avoid long lines to Fort Santiago.
Rajah Travel president and chair Aileen Clemente said that the company is now working on similar microsites for Bohol and Palawan.
Canizal said the arrivals data from Intramuros’ microsite – hoped to be search-engine optimised to have greater visibility over blogs – will be incorporated into TKC’s Data Center to help industry practitioners, researchers and policymakers to formulate policies and studies on sustainable tourism.
