3-day travel tour expo kicks off

MANILA, Philippines — Thousands of people lined up yesterday to attend the annual Travel Tour Expo at the  SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

The organizers of the three-day Travel Tour Expo said they are offering low-priced travel deals and packages at the expo so that more Filipinos will be able to travel to more destinations this year.

“This year is the biggest edition of the Travel Tour Expo yet,” Philippine Travel Agencies Association president Marlene Dado Jante said.

The exhibit occupied the entire SMX Convention Center and featured close to 400 exhibitors, 995 booths, 28 airlines, 133 hotels and resorts, 94 travel agencies, five cruise lines  and seven theme parks from around the world. Fifteen national tourism organizations are also participating in the expo.

“This year is the biggest edition of Travel Tour Expo, yet. We have set new records for the expo. This is the biggest gathering of travel and tourism stakeholders from around the world that is being staged here in the Philippines. For three days, Filipinos will get the chance to realize all their travel plans for an entire year at the expo,”  Jante added.

She said the Travel Tour Expo will have everything the public would need for their travels this year, from leisure travel to business travel all the way to those for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions.

“Running alongside the Travel Tour Expo is the 3rd International Travel Trade Expo, the business-to-business side of the expo. This year, we are happy to note that we have 84 sellers from 16 countries participating and more than 250 travel agency buyers from across the country. Instead of going abroad to expand their networks, we have started an event here in the country that  will do just that for travel agencies. At the same time, the Philippine travel and tourism industry also gains as international tourism stakeholders gets a glimpse of the various destinations in the country,” Jante said.

Aside from the exhibitors, she added the Travel Tour Expo will also feature non-stop stage activities, including cultural performances, celebrity performances, presentations from exhibitors and sponsors, and hourly raffles and games.

“There are so much happening over the three-day run of the expo,” Jante said.

Travel Tour Expo is supported by the Department of Tourism and the Tourism Promotions Board along with major sponsors Citibank as the official partner,Philippine Airlines and Mabuhay Miles as official airline and reads program partner, Philippine STAR and BusinessWorld as official broadsheet partners,a nd TLC and Sky Cable as official cable TV partner.

Travel Tour Expo will run until Sunday and will be open to the public from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. General admission fee is P70 while senior citizen rate is P50.