With the buzz created by the Boracay beach wedding of Malaysian pop singer Fish Leong and businessman Tony Zhao, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) continues to pull the stops to make the Philippine the primary wedding destination for Taiwanese soon-to-wed couples.
Mr. Rene Reyes, MECO Director of Tourism Affairs, said that efforts to promote the Philippines as a wedding destination started back in 2006 when they invited Ms. Ah-Chiang and Mr. Bryan Shou, who were designated as Philippine Tourism Celebrity endorser for Taiwan and wedding photographers to have a photo shoot in the country for couples to see. Then in 2009, they had GoldMine Tours introduce a wedding package for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
“This was promoted in Taiwan but at the end Goldmine need[ed] to postpone the event due to the typhoon that hit the Philippines”, said Dir. Reyes. From September to October of 2009, the country was badly damaged by typhoons Ondoy (international name: Ketsana) and Pepeng (international name: Parma) and placed the entire Metro Manila and nearby provinces under state of calamity.
But MECO’s efforts are in full steam again when they successfully hosted the wedding of Malaysian pop singer Fish Leong and businessman Tony Zhao in Boracay Island in Aklan.
Dir. Reyes disclosed, “They are the one who approached our office. The couple already decided that they are going to get married in 2010. They want a beach wedding. However, [they were] not decided whether to do it in Hawaii or in Boracay as the destinations are getting popular in the market due to continuous promotions and good feedback from Taiwanese who already visited the island. However, the couple during such time, have never been to Boracay.”
“Seeing that this will create a lot of publicity for the Philippines, our next step was to bring them to Boracay and assist them to meet hotel/resorts and wedding organizers for their wedding, they loved the destination and the rest is history. We also insured that their entry and exit to the Philippines, immigration, customs and other government entry requirements were processed easily considering the small airport in Kalibo.” Dir. Reyes adds.
News agencies from Malaysia, China, Singapore, and Taiwan posted news regarding the wedding of the singer and the businessman days after their wedding. The couple hired Filipino wedding suppliers for their wedding ceremony, specifically Ms. Amanda Tirol of Boracay Weddings as the wedding coordinator and Mayad Studios as videographer. The new Mr. and Mrs. Zhao together with their 50 guests composed on family and friends, including singers Penny Dai, Z-Chen, and music producer and Fish's mentor Jonathan Lee, stayed at Discovery Shores Hotel from January 30 until the wedding day, February 1, 2010.
After the successful hosting of Fish Leong’s wedding, Dir. Reyes said MECO will continue to create complete wedding packages for soon-to-wed Taiwanese couples to entice them tie the knot in the Philippines.
“Our next step is look for possible tie ups with service providers such as wedding organizers, to take care the wedding requirement, travel agents to take care of the group traveling requirement (transportation, airfare, visa, etc) and local hotel/resorts or for wedding venues.” he said.
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Kasal.com thanks the following sources for this article:The Straits Times. Singer Fish in Beach Wedding (Posted February 3, 2010)
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Lifestyle/Story/STIStory_485793.html
Kam, Rachael, Lester Kong and A. Raman, The Star Online. Romantic beach wedding for Fish Leong (Posted February 3, 2010).
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/2/3/nation/5597721&sec=nation
Yahoo! Singapore News (original from Xin.sg) Fish Leong says 'I do' at Philippines beach resort wedding (Posted February 4, 2010)
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/xin/20100203/ten-669-fish-leong-says-i-do-philippines-3c1b9bc.html
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