Marget Fernan Villarica, owner of a tour company in Cebu, disappears in a crowd, switches from friend to tour leader effortlessly, not even breathless in between the 100 kilometers to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. And when her group members look alarmed and lost, Marget pulls out her phone and makes a call. Even if she does not speak the language, eventually, and I don’t know how, she manages to get the information from a Spanish-speaking bus driver, hangs up, and proceeds to lead the group again.
Now basking in the glow of the Camino pilgrimage, Marget is tinkering on plans to offer more active tours like hiking and the Camino from different routes.
Marget, who heads Destinations Specialist (Cebu), is one of the travel leaders changing the face and the pace of tours. With “revenge travel” now a real factor in pushing travel plans, and after her successful Camino tour groups in September, she senses that there are travelers who want to experience a culture, not just to “ride a bus and shop.”
The market is ready for different travel experiences abroad – in Japan, Switzerland, and other countries, she said.
Marget is not making uninformed observations. She has been in the travel industry for 40 years and has traveled to places many only dream about.
“I learned the ropes of the travel business and I was enjoying what I was doing. I rose to the ranks as secretary, ticketing officer, sales executive and eventually became a manager,” she said. From a job in a travel agency in Manila, she joined Rajah Tours in Cebu in 1983, and eventually rose to director, and managed the company for 17 years.
I met Marget in September, in Dubai airport, where the other members of the Camino tour who had departed from other airports finally met. I was surprised to find that our group had participants from Los Angeles, Orange County, Las Vegas, Cebu City, Bacolod City, and Metro Manila. That showed her wide network of customers, most of them now her friends.
“Happiness to me is escorting friends and family to various destinations. I make sure everyone is comfortable and happy with the arrangements we have prepared for them. I love to be with people which makes the job easy to deal with,” she said.
At the Camino, where she led a group of 16 pilgrims from Sarria to Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, Spain, Marget was participant, tour leader, and friend to all. Six participants were her running buddies in Cebu (she was a marathoner), others were friends from previous tours she had organized, and a few from her high school days.
To her, tour groups are where friendships start. “Being in the travel business is truly a blessing as it has given me opportunity to see the world and meet people who have become friends,”
In the Camino, she did not seem interested in making an impression as the owner of the travel company, she acted more engrossed in being one of us, the ambitious pilgrims who would walk the last hundred kilometers to the sacred city of Santiago de Compostela.
It was only when instructions were announced, usually at the start of the day, did she take on the role of tour leader. Then she was friend and traveler again.
Marget established Destinations Specialist (Cebu) in 2001. When the pandemic restrictions were lifted, she was ready for “revenge travel,” bringing people to various destinations in Europe and Asia. Now 40 years in the travel industry, Marget’s deep knowledge of the industry buoyed the company, whose email inbox has been filled with inquiries about tours – the classic and the exotic and the custom-made.
Recently, she organized a Camino Pilgrimage tour, and decided to participate in it herself.
“The Camino was one of my best travel experiences. But the Camino is not for everyone. It is a unique experience and a trip of a lifetime. One has to be determined to do the walk which covers at least 100 kilometers. (The full Camino is about 800 kilometers.) And one should also be humble enough to realize the saying: "we don't walk the Camino that we want, we walk the Camino that we can."
Like any pilgrim, she is ready to talk about how the Camino had touched her and drawn from her resilience. Then she goes back to her most valued result of any tour: “But the most enduring aspect of the Camino for me was developing new friendships and strengthening old bonds.”
Her heart, though, rests on her family. She cites one of her favorite destinations as Edinburgh, UK, where she had visited her daughter who was then taking up her masters in law.
“I went there to visit her several times. I just love the small university town since it was easy to go around. Since I love to walk, I walked up to Arthur's seat, the main peak of the hills of Edinburgh (250.5 meters above sea level). The hill gave me an excellent panoramic view of the city and beyond,” she said.
Marget is married to Rene S. Villarica, and they have three children. Her eldest child, Carlo, runs the social media section of Destinations Specialist.
The services of Destination Specialist (Cebu) include outbound travel (international ticketing and tour packages); inbound (domestic ticketing and local tours); passport and visa application; and immigration services.