More than 200 travel agents and tour operators from around the world came to the country for the Philippine Travel Exchange 2018 held from Aug. 27 to Sept. 4.
Organized by the Tourism Promotions Board, the marketing arm of the Department of Tourism, PHITEX 2018 served as a venue for the world’s top travel and tour buyers to meet over 220 local sellers and discuss how best to promote the Philippines as a premier travel destination in Asia.
With the theme, “Tourism is our business: Guarding our Environment, Reliving our Culture,” it kicked off with a pre-tour in Bataan, Laguna, Tagaytay, and Batangas, which featured unique and interesting Philippine culture and heritage.
The highlight of the event was the Travel Exchange, an exclusive business-to-business appointment wherein foreign travel agents were introduced to the country’s best marketing trends and practices, and were able to experience first-hand the diversity of the country’s best tourism products and services that they can promote in their home countries.
On the other hand, sellers were able to offer globally competitive tour packages to the international market as well as learn other countries’ trade strategies to apply to their own practices. Seminars on sustainable tourism and culture and tourism were also held for the local sellers.
Aside from the pre-tour and the two-day TRAVEX, buyers were also treated to a five-day post tour to main attractions and destinations in the country, namely Bicol, Davao, Palawan, Dumaguete-Siquijor-Sumilon, and Ilocos.