MANILA -- The Travel Tour Expo (TTE), the country's biggest travel event this year, is targetting millennial travelers, said Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) President Marlene Dado Jante.
The annual event organized by the PTAA opens next month and will occupy the entire SMX Convention Center.
Jante said this year's TTE will have at least a 21 percent increase in the number of exhibitors from last year, bringing the total number of participants to 400, the highest in its history.
"We're targeting millennials because the direction of their mind is really to travel," she said, adding that with the TTE, they are actually delivering what is very popular in social media -- discounted airline tickets and compilation of tour packages from over a hundred participants.
"We witnessed that millennials like to travel because most of the bookings, at least 30 percent, are all millennials," Jante said.
The PTAA head also believes that TTE, currently the biggest annual travel and tourism event in the country, still has a lot of room for growth.
"Since 1993, we have been bringing together all the stakeholders under one roof. We are playing a key role in the growth of Philippine tourism," she said.
She added: "This is the reason why we are pushing forward and searching for ways to evolve the expo from its venue, program, and offerings to the public. Right now, the TTE is running parallel to the growth of our tourism industry."
Jante said in the 2017 TTE, an exhibitor offered airplane tickets to South Korea for PHP8,000. For this year, which coincides with the TTE's 25th anniversary, Jante assured that participants will get "the best deal" in the expo.
"We already talked to all of them (exhibitors)," she said
PTAA said the total number of booths as of Monday has reached around 995 and is still increasing. These booths will cover 16,230 square meters of SMX's floor area.
TTE will be featuring exhibitors such as hotels and resorts, airlines, tour operators, cruise lines, theme parks, and national tourism organizations from across the world. It will also host embassies, regional tourism offices, and local government units.
Entrance fee is priced PHP70 for general admission and PHP50 for senior citizens. Aside from exhibits, the event will be having celebrity live performances and raffles.
It will officially open on February 9 until February 11 with the following schedule:
February 9 -- 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
February 10 -- 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
February 11 -- 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
(PNA)
