All roads lead to 21st Travel Tour Expo

MANILA, Philippines - No doubt about it: People will again be trooping to the TravelTour Expo, now in its 21st year, happening on Feb. 14-16 at the SMS Convention Center. They will be queuing up for the best travel deals, the best packages (flights and accommodations), the best discounts, and many other “bests” that the travel industry can offer.

“We bought our tickets here and went to Guam last year — it cost us only US$190 all in/per head for a round-trip fare,” says a beaming Marciano “Nit” Ragaza III, executive director, TravelTour Expo (TTE) 2014 and concurrent OIC-secretary general of the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA).  “The offer — $190, including travel tax and other taxes — was so attractive, I just had to buy.”

Picture last year’s travel expo scenario: Eager early birds waiting by the door hours before the opening. As soon as the doors open, a wave of humanity starts streaming in and soon, they’re lining up at the booths. Having learned their lesson from years past, my friends and family  — the whole caboodle — who love to travel as much as they love life (incidentally, the theme of this year’s TTE is “Love Life, Love Travel) will be rising bright and early on Valentine’s Day to beat the crowds flocking to the expo.

Bigger and better

The good news is that this year’s TTE is bigger and better.  “The experience year in and year out is that there’s not enough space,” Nit Ragaza notes. “So I took the opportunity to sell them the idea to get a bigger space. The second floor of SMX has function rooms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. We got the biggest (5), which is 2,350 sq.m. At that time, we were not really sure whether we would be able to sell so I told them to get half, which we did. But then, in the end, I was saying can I buy back some of those kasi ang dami, but they already decided because they needed the space, they really wanted their customers to have a comfortable experience buying tickets.”

Nit adds, “Okay na yon. The problem is, we have 31 waitlisted. I don’t want to call them waitlisted because there’s no more space. Note that these are not 31 booths but 31 exhibitors, some of whom were asking for 10 booths, so that’s times 10. What compounded the problem was the fact that, because of the good experience of some, those who were not used to selling, or just gave it a try, got only one booth but made so much money.  So, this year, some of them got two or three booths.”

This year, TTE will occupy Halls 1 to 4 of SMX’s ground floor plus function room 5 of the second floor, making up a total floor area of 11,480 sq.m.

Most diverse offerings

Bound to be the biggest and most diverse in terms of exhibitors, this year’s TTE will have 53 travel agencies and tour operators (inbound and outbound), 28 airlines, five cruise liners, 96 hotels and resorts, 14 embassies and travel organizations, six theme parks, 18 travel products suppliers/allied services/merchandisers, 14 food and regional delicacies, four travel insurance companies, and one technology hub — comprising a total of 534 booths.

“A lot of newcomers showed serious interest in joining the TTE, including those from the Bicol Region,” says PTAA president John Paul Cabalza.

The international pavilion will feature the travel agents as well as the airlines and tourism organizations of other countries like Japan, Malaysia, and Guam. There would have been more, says Nit, but “there’s no more space. Indonesia and Sabah already came in.”

TTE 2014 is sponsored jointly by the Department of Tourism, Philippine Airlines, and Citibank (the official credit card company).  Additional sponsors are Asiamiles, the official mileage card, and Globe Telecom, the official telco partner of PTAA for this event.

Of course, the biggest come-ons at TTE year after year are the low, low fares.  You’ll be amazed at how low they (exhibitors) can go in terms of their prices. “Last year, for instance, a ticket to the US was selling for $790 all in,” Nit relates. “If you take out the taxes, the fare is only $300. So I said, ‘Sige, mura lang, I will visit my son in the US.”

“Philippine Airlines was selling fares as low as P99 (excluding taxes) for the Visayas and Mindanao,” says Cris Aquino of Travelpros.

Top travel tip

Nit, a seasoned traveller, shares this travel tip: “So, when you go to SMX, you have to be prepared with a flexible date. Tell them when you want to travel. Don’t buy for April-May because it’s peak season, it’s our summer vacation. If you wanna go in June, it’s possible. Yes, you can pay with your credit card.”

Yes, there are pambarkada fares for those traveling with the barkada. “The buying period is during the expo,” says Nit. “So you just go there, talk with the barkada, and collectively make a decision.”

Surely, when it comes to local places to visit, we’re spoiled for choice. Nit gushes, “Romblon is beautiful and quite ideal for white water rafting.  But we hesitate to push one destination over the other because, fortunately or unfortunately, we have so many beautiful places. Before, it was just Cebu, and eventually Puerto Galera and Boracay. We try to spread the promotions to the different destinations. And now, the destinations are pushing themselves.”

For those who will climb every mountain, Cris Aquino suggests Mount Pulag, Luzon’s highest peak at 2,922 m. above sea level. It tops Cris’ bucket list, along with Batanes, which rocks with its windswept stone and lime houses, the iconic Rice Terraces of Banaue, and the exotic waterfalls of Mindanao. Cris’ list can go on and on.

Falling for kawasan falls

Have you seen Kawasan Falls in Cebu? In Yahoo News, it makes Adila Shahrin’s list of 50 drop-dead gorgeous places around the world, along with Norway’s vaunted Northern Lights, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, St. Basil’s Cathedral in Russia, the scent-sational fields of lavender in Provence, the Sahara Dunes in Morocco, The Great Blue Hole in Belize, the bamboo forest of Japan, and the world’s largest floral garden in The Netherlands, among other places you may want to visit before you kick the bucket.

Located in Barangay Matutinao in the town of Badian, Kawasan Falls is only four hours from Cebu City. With its spellbinding major drops plus a spring near the top, it’s easy to fall in love with Kawasan Falls.

According to DOT, domestic tourists are expected to reach 47.7 million in 2014 (up from 44.1 million last year) with revenues hitting P1.4 trillion in 2014 (higher by P110.6 billion vis-a-vis domestic tourism earnings in 2013), due largely to a forecasted increase in the daily expenditures of domestic tourists.

So, all aboard for this year’s much-awaited TravelTour Expo.

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The 21st TravelTour Expo 2014 is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Feb. 14 and 15, and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Feb. 16. For more information, call the PTAA Secretariat at 552-0026 to 29 or e-mail ptaa@ptaa.org.ph and cc: jojoclem@ptaa.org.ph  and ched@ptaa.org.ph.