The Las Fuentes Foundation is promoting the city of Cordoba with tours of more than three days among Asian Muslim tourists, thanks to a project financed by the Municipal Institute for Economic Development and Employment of Cordoba (IMDEEC). This program, in addition to increasing overnight stays in the city, aims to make Cordoba’s muslim-friendly tourist resources more visible abroad by carrying out various campaigns and involving local businesses and stores catering to this type of visitor.

To this end, this entity is organizing, thanks to the support of IMDEEC, direct and reverse missions in strategic markets such as Malaysia and Indonesia. The first ones are being carried out in fam-trip format, with the organization of trips that include Cordoba as a destination to show the city’s muslim-friendly offer in situ and to gather information from the participants.

As part of this mission, during the last weekend of June, four influencers from Malaysia and Singapore toured the city to promote it on their Instagram accounts and on a specialized travel portal. Amirul Haniff and Hamiza Hamidon have arrived from Malaysia and between them have more than 100,000 followers on this network, with accounts specializing in travel tourism and lifestyle. From Singapore, Amira Rahmat, a digital creator with almost 74,000 followers, and Nur Aimi, owner of the travel portal HalalZilla, have visited Cordoba.

The participants visited monuments such as the Cathedral Mosque, the Synagogue, the Artisans’ Souk and the Viana Palace. They have also attended the Cordoba Equestrian show. In addition, the program has included a visit to craft and catering companies, to broaden the view of the city and show the most important professional activities. Regarding the direct mission, the objective is to travel to Indonesia in September to improve Cordoba’s positioning there.

The director of Las Fuentes Foundation, Barbara Hayat Ruiz-Bejarano, explained that “this innovative proposal aims to offer a comprehensive vision of Cordoba beyond its historical values. It is about inviting to a slow immersion to feel the city in all its dimension, to open the historic Andalusian city to the emerging Asian Muslim tourism”. He also pointed out that “the Spanish tourism office in Singapore has become involved with this program and is sharing information and disseminating this activity, because Turespaña has identified Muslim-friendly tourism as a strategic niche for our country”.

For her part, the Deputy Mayor for Economy and Employment and President of IMDEEC, Blanca Torrent, highlighted that “Spain has been recognized as the best emerging muslim-friendly destination of the year and has become a key European destination for halal travel. And Andalusia and, particularly, Cordoba are priority targets thanks to its architectural and heritage legacy, which is a focus of worldwide attraction”.

With this project, funded by the IMDEEC Grants for Non-Profit Organizations, “we want to promote the city abroad, with programs and attractions that extend overnight stays. And also generate new opportunities for trade and local hospitality companies, so that they learn to know the tastes and needs of a market with high added value, with more than 1,000 million potential customers,” concluded Blanca Torrent.