Philippine outbound travel growth stretches consumer fair beyond seams

PTAA estimates sales from the fair were up 30 per cent

The Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) has a happy problem: an oversubscription of its Travel and Tour Expo (TTE), which this year saw the largest number of organisations in attendance over its 25- year history.

The three-day fair, which took place last week, saw 400 organisations in attendance, a 21 per cent increase from last year. In the 2011-2017, the number of exhibitors grew 30 per cent.

PTAA estimates sales from the fair were up 30 per cent

Marlene Dado Jante, PTAA president and TTE organising committee chair, told TTG Asia that the over 16,000m2 SMX Convention Center Manila had become small for the growing number of local and foreign exhibitors and travellers lured by heavily discounted airfares, hotels, tours, and new destinations.

The organisers are looking into ways to circumvent this, such as by holding TTE in two different locations and making the annual event twice a year.

“In November last year, when we held our exhibitors briefing, we had at least 60 companies and organisations waitlisted. It was a significant number that we had to address because we want the TTE to host as many industry players as we can,” Jante said.

There is also a surge in the number of participating countries this year, including, amazingly, first-timer Kingdom of Lesotho.

Simultaneous with TTE was the third edition of the International Travel Trade Expo (iTTE), the B2B component which allows PTAA members to have pre-appointed meetings with international tourism companies and NTOs.

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