One can easily tell that our tourism industry is on its way back to its pre-pandemic stature because my social calendar is now filled with industry events that further feed everybody’s appetite for travel. Here are some of these events that have definitely kept our Industry stakeholders brimming with delight and hopeful anticipation.
Travel, Brands, and Lifestyle Fair
The National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (NAITAS) recently partnered with Metro Creative Themes Inc. (MCTI) in putting together the highly successful Travel, Brands, and Lifestyle Fair at the SMX Mall of Asia. After more than two years of being quiet on the travel front, events like this certainly prove that the industry is alive once again, raring to put across its much-valued contribution to our country’s economic recovery.
NAITAS President Florence Rivera was brimming with joy as she shared the list of eager exhibitors in the three-day Expo which attracted a large crowd during its opening day. She also announced the Launch of their nationwide search for Mrs. Face of Tourism, which is expected to attract a lot of candidates, all of them ladies involved with the Tourism Industry.
A major national travel association representing the Travel and Tours sector, NAITAS has seventeen chapters around the country and is always involved with the local, regional and national concerns of this particular sector of our tourism industry.
Trabaho, Turismo, Asenso
The Department of Tourism (DOT), together with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), hosted this Job Fair at the SMX Mall of Asia, in response to the need of our tourism stakeholders to hire competent staff to beef up the Industry’s currently inadequate human capital. During the Listening Tour of Tourism Secretary Frasco, she found out that most of the Tourism establishments in the country are looking for qualified staff to man their respective businesses. During the pandemic, these establishments had to let go of most of their staff. Naturally, for reasons of self-preservation, those employees had to look for other sources of income, and most of them are now gainfully employed abroad.
To solve this shortage of qualified staff in the Industry, DOT Asec. Rica Bueno, with the cooperation of Jing Lagandaon, COO of Global-Link MP Events Int’l., put up the very well-attended three-day Trabaho, Turismo, Asenso Job Fair as part of the highly successful Hotel Suppliers Show staged annually by Lagandaon.
There were 8000 jobs up for grabs, which was why a huge crowd of fresh graduates and eager applicants packed the humongous halls of SMX, especially because they learned that many have been hired on the spot.
Travel Tour Expo 2023
At their recent General Membership Meeting (GMM), the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) also launched their popular Travel Tour Expo which will take place early next year. This annual event has become very well attended the past many years before the pandemic, as it offers large discounts on airline tickets for domestic and international destinations, and on accommodations in resorts and hotels all over the country.
To spice up their GMM, PTAA President Michelle Taylan invited Israel Ambassador Ilan Fluss,
Dr. Armin Shaaban of the Egyptian Embassy, and Turkish Embassy’s Third Secretary Taha Coskun to showcase the various tourism destinations of their respective countries. Naturally, these whet the travel appetite of the audience, all travel agents who are raring to jet off to various destinations, now that most international borders are open.
Philippine Travel Mart
Just the other day, the Philippine Tour Operators Association (PHILTOA) unleashed its longest-running interactive Tourism Expo, the Philippine Travel Mart, at the SMX Mall of Asia. Its President, Fe Abling-Yu, proudly declared that the association has been waiting for a long time to re-stage this annual event which, naturally, had to be stopped during the pandemic.
This Expo has been designed to support the tourism industry’s many MSMEs by exploring everything our country has to offer to tourists. Tours to other countries were also made available to the throng which trooped to the venue non-stop, much to the delight of PHILTOA officers.
World Tourism Day
Our Department of Tourism organized the celebration of this year’s World Tourism Day a few days ago, through a day-long Conference at the Manila Hotel, with the theme, “Rethinking Tourism.” It was part of the UNWTO’s commemoration of the adoption of the Statutes of the Organization in 1970 which paved the way for its establishment five years later. During UNWTO’s 1979 General Assembly in Torremolinos, Spain, they decided to celebrate World Tourism Day starting the following year, 1980, and the significant day has been marked every year since.
The Conference at the Manila Hotel featured a variety of multi-stakeholder speakers, as well as breakout sessions that discussed, “Rethinking Tourism as a Key Element of Recovery.” An SRO crowd of tourism professionals from all over the country attended the all-important celebration.
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