MANILA, Philippines - I guess I drank too much butter beer. Or maybe it was the Floo Powder I bought at Zonko’s. Or it could have been the Polyjuice Potion (a potion that allows the drinker to appear to be another person for a set time, usually an hour), which I gulped out of curiosity. Whatever it was, it transported me to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — sans the Invisibility Cloak — in a jiffy.
Yes, just like magic!
Magic filled the air the minute I stepped on the cobble-stoned area under the Gothic arch entrance. The sight of the Hogwarts Express and the snow-capped little thatched cottages, the butter beer kiosk, and shops at Hogsmeade brought the Harry Potter books and films to life. Too bad I didn’t get the chance to wear the Sorting Hat as I spent my limited time at Ollivander’s, where the wand chooses the wizard, just before the Polyjuice Potion wore off.
Set to open on June 18, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is just one of many exciting and interesting attractions that await guests at the Universal Orlando Resort.
As delegates to this year’s International Pow Wow, the biggest gathering of travel and tourism industry players that is organized annually by the US Travel Association (USTA), the Hogwarts’ Ministry of Magic gave us a VIP welcome and an exclusive tour of the enchanting world of the boy wizard.
The International Pow Wow 2010 took place in Orlando, Florida, where some 450 media guests from around the globe and more than 1,500 international and domestic buyers from 70 countries as well as travel suppliers and organizations from every region of the US, got to experience Orlando’s magic.
Originally the center of a major citrus region, Orlando is home to Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld. The city is about 21 miles northeast of Lake-Buena Vista, Florida, where the Walt Disney World Resort is located. These attractions significantly contribute to Orlando’s tourism, making the city the most visited US destination, and the number one domestic visitor destination of 2009.
Getting Their Act Together
While 2010 was marred by crises, delegates to this year’s Pow Wow increased to about five percent over last year’s figures.
“Over 92,000 flights were cancelled when the volcano in Iceland erupted,” noted Roger Dow, president, USTA. “It cost Europe billions of dollars. It cost the US about US$650 million in direct spending in its first five days. The cost to the world’s airlines was about US$1.7 billion. And that doesn’t take into account the economic loss from the business deals that didn’t get done. We are also watching very carefully the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico.”
These frustrating incidents not only showed how fragile this thing we call travel is, but also clearly demonstrated how the wrath of Mother Nature can make a huge impact on the world economy.
Well, the good news is that in spite of these setbacks, thousands of organizations and destinations exhibited this year, and the event generated a tremendous number of appointments.
“We have 70,000 appointments pre-scheduled even before Pow Wow 2010 started,” Dow enthused.
The biggest success in terms of tourism, Dow added, was the passage of the Travel Promotions Act (TPA). Coming together and getting government support and approval of the TPA, it’s been a very historic year for the USTA.
“In terms of international visitation, 2009 was a tough year worldwide. Inbound visitation to the US and outside the US was down to 5.3 percent. Around the world, it was down by 4.3 percent. The TPA promises to jumpstart travel, a critical sector of the US economy,” explained Dow.
TPA establishes a new public-private partnership to promote the US as a leading destination for international travelers and educate them about US security procedures.
What the TPA does is it creates a corporation for travel promotions. It’s a private entity that’s outside USTA. This partnership will be funded by a modest US$10 fee on overseas travelers who do not pay US$131 for a US visa and matched by the travel industry.
Oxford Economics, the consulting firm, estimates that a well-executed travel promotion campaign — such as the one in this bill — would attract 1.6 million new international visitors each year.
“These visitors would spend an estimated US$4 billion and generate US$321 million in new federal tax revenue,” he beamed.
The city of Orlando has reasons to be cheerful, too, as it moves up to the No. 4 slot in the International Visitor Destination of 2009. Expect more visitors to arrive with the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter on June 18, and the completion of the renovation of Walt Disney World’s Fantasyland.
Pampering Pow Wow Style
Delta Airlines sure knows how to spoil its guests. The pampering started as soon as we boarded the plane and were ushered to our comfy seats to the airport lounge down to The Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort where our group was billeted.
On the first day of Pow Wow, delegates joined the local tours, encompassing the theme parks (Universal Orlando, Walt Disney World, SeaWorld), the outlet shops, the Space Center, the Daytona International Speedway, among others.
Gina Campos, general manager-ITI, GSA for Delta; PDI’s Alex Vergara, and I signed up for The Walt Disney World tour, which took us to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, one of the four parks at the Walt Disney World Resort that reflect Walt Disney’s dedication to nature and conservation. We experienced the thrill of the Everest (roller coaster) ride; and had a backstage tour of the Magic Kingdom where we met some of Disney’s beloved characters sans costume and makeup.
After the tour, we rushed to the Orange County Convention Center to get a fix on this year’s travel mood. Well, travel experts are right. There’s definitely no “staycation” this year as holiday travel (not just for the locals) is making a comeback.
According to the US Travel Association, leisure travel is expected to rise two percent; business travel, 2.5 percent; and international travel into the US, three percent this year. Exhibitors tried to get their fair share of the market as they offered tempting freebies, discounts, and incentives to buyers.
An Apple iPad, fully loaded with the inside scoop on Las Vegas, was raffled off during a cocktail party hosted by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Guests took the opportunity to have their souvenir photo taken with the king of rock ‘n’ roll.
Over at the New York City booth, Tiffany Townsend, vice president for Communications and Government Affairs of NYC & Company, got the word out that “despite the recent bomb scare at Time Square, New York City is open for business.”
“The NYPD is doing their best to make sure the city and its people are safe. There’s always something new to see in NYC. There are a lot of Broadway offerings. The Phantom of the Opera is still on Broadway, so are Chicago and Memphis. Also, New York City’s dynamic hotel sector continued to expand in the first five months of 2010 with more on the way through year end,” added Spell.
Something bigger and better awaits tourists in Orlando and Hollywood — two prime park destinations. This July, Universal Studios Hollywood will break new ground in themed entertainment with the introduction of the world’s largest, most intense 3-D experience — King Kong 360-degree 3-D created by Peter Jackson. It will be the signature attraction of the behind-the-scenes Studio Tour.
With two massive 187”x40”-high seamless, compound-curved screens (the equivalent of 16 movie theater screens), the immersive attraction will transport Studio Tour guests to Skull Island where they will find themselves catapulted into the middle of a terrifying struggle between giant dinosaurs and the “eighth wonder of the world” — King Kong.
Universal Orlando, on the other hand, gives tourists a VIP pass to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter this June.
CityPass, which offers travel discounts to multiple destinations in key US cities, gave delegates a San Francisco CityPass Attraction Booklet for free to help them map their adventures as the International Pow Wow goes to SanFo next year.
Texas once again took the spotlight this year as it treated Pow Wow delegates to a Texas-style lunch.
Clad in full astronaut gear, Roger Dow, president and CEO of the US Travel Association, made yet another memorable entrance accompanied by Kalyn Hemphill, winner of Project Runway.
Dow’s outfit was especially appropriate, given that this lunch marked a very special Pow Wow first: A recorded greeting to Pow Wow delegates made by a pair of US astronauts, directly from the International Space Station.
“Despite all that challenges that have happened with the economy and natural disasters, we’re really looking forward to a very bright future,” Dow enthused.
Let The Flight Begin
While the US travel industry is pushing for a more “open” attitude to travel, the Transportation Security Administration feels that the need for security is equally crucial to boost tourism.
Paul Leyh of the Transportation Security Administration underscored the importance of Secure Flight, an aviation security program.
“The Secure Flight is an aviation program. It ensures that the good guys get on the airplane, and the bad guys don’t get on the airplane. Secure Flight is a key recommendation of the 9-11 Commission. It’s a unified watch list matching process. Secure Flight will effectively and consistently prevent known or suspected terrorists on government watch lists from boarding an aircraft,” Leyh explained.
Further, by acquiring additional data, Secure Flight will also more effectively clear passengers who have similar names to individuals on the watch list and may have been misidentified in the past.
So how does Secure Flight work?
When booking future air travel, passengers will be prompted to submit their name as it appears on their passport, as well as their date of birth, gender, and if available, their DHS Redress number to the airline. This personal information is then submitted by the airline to TSA.
“TSA collects only the minimum amount of personal information necessary to conduct effective watch list matching. Under Secure Flight, personal information is retained for the minimum amount of time — for passengers that do not match a name on a government watch list, personal information is saved a maximum of seven days and then deleted,” stressed Leyh.
This year’s Pow Wow was capped with a sumptuous feast and a high-energy concert — “Shamu Rocks” at SeaWorld — which combines the awe-inspiring killer whales with a stunning light show, superb choreography, and music.
Shamu is actually the stage name for all of SeaWorld’s killer whales, each weighing from 6,000 to 10,000 pounds. We were told that it took the trainors two years to teach the killer whales 160 new behaviors, with 100 making it to the show.
It was a fun and magical Pow Wow for everyone. Imagine three of the world’s largest theme parks — Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld — closing their gates to the public just to amuse and delight us. Food overflowed, the rides were unlimited, and the souvenir shops offered huge discounts. We enjoyed the VIP treatment by simply flashing our Pow Wow media card, our passport to the good life.
As in years past, this Pow Wow didn’t fail to wow guests.
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Delta Airlines flies 12 times a week from Manila to the US, including Orlando and Los Angeles, via Narita or Nagoya, Japan. For inquiries, visit www.deltaair.com.