North Luzon travel expo launched to spur tourism recovery

BAGUIO CITY — The Department of Tourism (DOT) in the North on Saturday morning launched the second travel expo in a bid to ensure the further recovery of the tourism industry in northern provinces.

DOT Regional Offices I, II and III and Cordillera Administrative Region kicked off the 2nd North Luzon Travel Expo (NLTE) at the Grand Sierra Pines Hotel, North Outlook Drive, in Baguio City that will be held from the Nov. 25 to 27, 2023. The event is hosted by DOT-Cordillera.

The first NLT Fair was launched at SMX Convention Center Clark, Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga.

The DOT-CAR lined-up the activities with the Tourism and Travel Fair as the main feature. This will be held at the CAP Convention Center at Camp John Hay, Baguio City. Other activities include a music show featuring local artists of the four regions; the art in the park at Reflection Pool of Wright Park, Baguio City; Business to business networking activity at La Fayette Hotel, Baguio City.

There will be also product presentations at the CAP Convention Center as well as familiarization tour or the North Luzon Interregional Circuit that will be a post-tour where key destinations in Baguio City and Benguet in the Cordillera and Naguillan, San Fernando City, Bauang, San Juan and Luna in La Union in Region 1 will be visited.

On November 26, a "Hibla ng Lahing Pilipino Fashion Oarade will be staged at the Manor Garden, Camp John Hay. This will showcase regal fabrics from North Luzon to recognize the weavers of indigenous Filipino textiles.

According to DOT Cordillera chief Jovy Ganongan, aside from supporting North Luzon tourism stakeholders in the continuous revival of the local tourism industry, the activity is also eyed "to create a synergy to develop a robust tourism value chain by converging existing and new domestic tourism products, destinations, and services of the North Luzon regions to the local and international markets. She also said this is also to further strengthen the relationship of the North Luzon regions with their tourism stakeholders.”

Enrique Esguerra of the Alliance of Travel and Tours Management in the Cordilleras (ATTIC) stressed that the event that showcases the attractions of each regions and is never a competition but more of a collaboration. He said that each of the regions will unleash their own creativity in promoting their tourism products.