The Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) hosts the biggest Travel Fair in the country, the Travel Tour Expo. This year’s edition, the 31st, was the biggest, so far, with more than 200 exhibitors occupying more than 700 booths set up on two floors of the humongous SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia Complex.
People troop to the event because domestic and international travel and tours are offered at amazing discounts which are not made available any other time of the year. I was there as a guest of PTAA during the opening ceremonies and the lines of eager prospective travelers outside the exhibition halls, buying their entrance tickets, covering the entire lobby of SMX.
PTAA president Evangeline Manotok was beaming with pride as visitors filled every available space in the venue while looking for the best discounts among the hotels, resorts, and airfares to domestic and international destinations.
TTE 2024 chairperson Patria Chiong happily declared that this year’s attendance surpassed the pre-pandemic numbers that the travel expo attracted. This could only mean that this year will again be a banner year for our country’s Travel and Tourism Industry.
Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco, during her keynote speech, announced that our country recorded a total of 5.45 million international arrivals, way beyond the target of 4.8 million. Out of these arrivals, 92 percent were foreign passport holders, with South Koreans still topping the list, while 8 percent were overseas Filipinos.
She also announced that the Department of Tourism has embarked on the Philippine Experience Program which promotes lesser-known destinations in the country, to encourage more domestic and international visitors to discover more reasons to Love the Philippines. This project has, so far, showcased the various provinces in Davao, CALABARZON, the Bicol Region, and Western Visayas with more destinations being prepared in the pipeline.
The Tourism Secretary also proudly revealed that the agency has embarked on a huge project to improve tourism facilities all throughout the country, such as building Tourism Rest Areas. Last year, ten were built in areas leading to popular tourist destinations, and twenty more as scheduled to open this year. This laudable project has been made possible through the cooperation of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA).
I like what she said about travel agents, the majority members of PTAA, that even if their job is to bring people out of the country, she’s still grateful to them as these passengers pay the Philippine Travel Tax. This amount goes to TIEZA which helps the DOT in putting up the much-needed infrastructure for our tourism industry.
There were also more countries that participated in this year’s TTE. Among them, Taiwan had the biggest booth, and it was right at the main entrance to the hall. It even featured some dancers performing some intricate athletic moves, much to the delight of the audience. Hong Kong had a very colorful booth, while Thailand had staff in the usual elegant Thai costumes while greeting everyone with the traditional “Wai.”
Korea was packed with prospective holiday-seekers as it was selling heavily discounted tours to Jeju Island, travel that does not require Filipinos to have a visa. Of course, Japan did not want to be left behind as they had a booth that portrayed the serene scenes of their country, attracting guests to take part in typical Japanese traditional activities, while scouting around for bargain tours to various cities in that country.
Macau, Indonesia, Guam, and a few other countries also had attractive booths, all offering attractive tours at giveaway rates, the reason why swarms of visitors gathered around them throughout the day.
The Travel Tour Expo will always be a landmark event for our Travel and Tourism Industry. This early, PTAA is already starting preparations for next year’s event, expected to be even bigger than what we had this year.
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