SMOKEY TOURS

By Freia Kortekaas
Heard of Smokey Tours? Keep reading and you'll find out.

Smokey Tours is a Tour operator run by Filipina Holiturs Inc. that offers singular tours such as: Smokey Mountain Tour, Market tour, Bike tour and a Cockfight tour. Smokey Tours is not the regular kind of Tour operator that only shows tourists around, it has a much more profound purpose. To give you a slight idea, Smokey Tours' slogan is "See the real Manila". 



Tour leader and the group during one of the tours through Smokey Mountain

The beginning

The concept of Smokey Tours was created a few years ago by Juliette Kwee. " I was inspired in 2011 when I volunteered in Smokey Mountain with Bahay at Yaman ni San Martin de Porres (San Martin a local NGO). One of the persons living in Smokey Mountain was good at explaining their living situation in a proud way. It became clear to me that there are so many similarities in what people want. People want to be happy, to be able to eat, to have a roof above their head, and have a good education for their children" expresses Juliette on the subject.
                                                 
Seeing the talent of potential guides in the area, and having seen the success of slum tours in India and Brazil, Juliette decided to start a similar tour in October 2011.

The Smokey Mountain Tour was born, the idea being to educate the outside world about slums as well as to raise money for San Martin to help the community.

She states, "My first idea was to show people that you can be happy with food and love, you don't need an iphone. I wanted to give people in the area an opportunity to have livelihood, while showing people where they live. Visitors want to see a slum, and it is better if that is organized and the people in the area benefit directly from it".

Interaction with local children in one of the tours



Smokey Tours started quite recently; they're currently investing in training tour leaders and market the tours with all the help they can get. In March 2013, Chris Way from Reality Tours and Travel came to Manila with the goal of using knowledge gained running similar slum tours in Mumbai to look at all aspects of the tour.

Tour leaders & group of tourists at Bahay at Yaman ni San Martin de Porres after taking the Smokey Mountain Tour

If you're interested in taking one of the tours, in more information about Smokey Tours or simply in helping out, visit their website www.smokeytours.com or contact the Smokey Tour team directly at
 
About the author Freia Kortekass
Freia is currently doing her internship with Smokey Tours in Manila until December '13. She is Dutch/Honduran and is now a 3rd year student of International Business and Management Studies at the HAN Arnhem in the Netherlands.